Still Melting

I got an extra day from the solar system today. I also got one from work. I was scheduled to help with the Vertical Challenge fund raiser at Snow Basin but got excused. So I worked until early afternoon and took off.

I followed my footsteps from yesterday and someone had actually pushed on from where I had stopped and went to the bench that overlooks the Dee Events Center. I broke trail to the overlook above WSU's Promontory Tower Dorms, thinking maybe someone had come that far from the North. No such luck and it looked brutal beyond the overlook so I saved it for another day.

On the way back, I picked up a partner. This vulture must have seen me floundering in the snow and followed along hoping for dinner. Sorry sucka, I'm tougher than your average pudgy, bald guy and getting tougher.

Here are a couple of pics to document the slushing of the snow pack.

Tomorrow I thought I'd climb to the top of Malan Peak...but my wife thought I'd clean out the garage. I'll probably post some pics of my clean garage tomorrow.

Melt Out

Crap! It's been an actual month since I've even logged on to this site. I haven't heard any complaints from the legion of daily visitors so...no harm, no foul.

Speaking of foul, weather conditions this week have been anything but. I can't say the same for hiking on the trails. That has been foul. The snow is melting fast but it's still deep in most places. The succession of pics with this post were taken in the last three weeks. I took the one of the rocks because it was the first time since December I'd seen any that weren't covered with snow. The next one was taken last week. I had just "post-holed" through a few hundred yards of hip-deep snow. If I could discern the trail that was buried by the last couple of big storms, I could walk on top. If I missed the trail, I'd plunge down into soft snow until my leg disappeared. It was loads of fun. I wanted to go as far as I could because of the tantalizing bare slope on the other side of the draw. The trail was still covered but I wanted to smell the dirt.

I took the last photo yesterday. It's not so dramatic really. But It shows what I haven't seen since before Christmas. Bare dirt on the trail. It was only a 40 foot stretch and then I was back in the deep stuff, but it offered hope that the snow would eventually go away and let me walk without gaiters soon.

I love for the snow to come. I love for it to leave. I love snowshoe'rs too. Now that a few cars can pull into the Beus Trail Head parking lot maybe a few of them will come and stomp the trail hard again. In the meantime, If you walk on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail between Beus Canyon and Strongs Canyon. You should send me five bucks or so. I'm the one (only one) who busted the little path through the white wilderness. Believe me, it's worth five bucks to you at the least to walk in my footprints.

I take Visa, MC and PayPal