High Sierra Topix

FYI,
I called the West Region ranger station in Pollock Pines yesterday to get a permit hiking in from Echo Lks to Suzie/Heather and the ranger advised of "five to seven feet" of snow at Aloha and Heather/Suzie, respectively...

peace,
al

so, backcountry skis and probably no mosquitos.. sweet..

you know, i was pretty skeptical of it being that deep especially since i've been on the ca dept. water resources website (the one posted on this 'board that has all the snow depth readings), and they're not stating the depth anywhere near that. i asked her twice just to make sure...
oh well... yeah, no mosquitos is a huge plus!

Alot of secondary roads at 6k to 7k elevations that would normally be open mid to late May are still not open. Just takes one mostly shady zone to block a road. For instance in Tahoe NF, the Bowman Road and Carr-Lindsey roads off I80 that are below 6k are still blocked by snow. In Sierra NF, even the Courtright Reservoir road is still blocked by snow. All CDEC remote Snowtel sites are of course open sunny locations that are apt to melt out sooner than trails that often route in forest areas.

Here's a peakbag report dated yesterday, of a couple peaks on the southeastern periphery of Desolation. You can get some idea from the photos of how much snow there is, and where.

I hiked to Crag Lake out of Meeks Bay on Monday June 14th. There is still a lot of snow on the trails, especially in the trees and north facing slopes. I would say the snow line is 7500 ft and above. No mosquitos at the lake, but plenty in the swampy area around Meeks Bay.

So Bigd was Crag in fact free of ice?

TahoeJeff wrote:So Bigd was Crag in fact free of ice?

Crag lake is ice free. Just a little snow on the trail in the shadier spots. The wood bridge over meeks creek is a little mangled, but you can cross on one of the beams.

Thanks EGBill. That is (was?) one stout little bridge, I hope the Forest Service repairs it as soon as the melt has passed.

It "was" a stout little bridge. One of the major beams that went across the creek broke/rotted on one end and fell into the creek. So the bridge is on kind of a tilt...