Snow! Hallelujah SNOW!

Friday night it snowed. Saturday I rented some x-c skis and headed up to the Peavine Ridge road in the Ice House area. It's nice and flat there and I figured I could practice x-c skiing without too much trouble. As a backup, I brought my snow shoes too.

We first stopped way, way down the road where it intersected with a snowed over dirt forest service road. I picked it because the snow plow had made a parking space off the road. Although the road trended uphill, it wasn't too steep and didn't look too long and I was going to practice anyway so I might as well practice on a hill. After struggling for about 15 minutes trying to get over the chunky snow berm, I re-thought my cunning hill plan and we drove back to the intersection where one could turn off to Union Valley Reservoir. It's flat, flat, flat there.

I geared up again and tentatively headed out across the virgin snow. It was about as physically hard as snow shoeing, although the few slipping sensations were scary. The snow was only about a foot deep, but these skis were really engineered for groomed trails not "back country" conditions. The springiness was nice. After plowing through some snow for a while, I took the skis to the road, which had a few inches of snow on it and could be classified as a groomed trail.

I got into the whole gliding motion thing and could see that these would be faster under some circumstances. Soon though, I was getting a bit tired.

Commando ran around like a loon. The snow was chest deep for him so while I was getting my ankles wet and making slow progress, he was bounding around and pushing through much more mass. He demonstrated the terrier interest in rodents and spent a lot of time with his ass in the air and his head shoved under the snow terrorizing some poor beasties.

We also played the "catch the snowball" game which both of us find pretty darn entertaining. He really makes some spectacular and athletic leaps and gets good water from chomping down on the snowballs.

We drove down to the reservoir and walked about 1/2 across the dam. The tracks are some tiny mouse-icle tracks. For some reason, several teeny rodents had crossed over the top of the dam in many directions and their tracks were all over.

The view of the mountains is of the Crystal Range and the reservoir. My pathetic cell phone doesn't do it justice, but maybe it will remind me of the majestic view.

Eagle Lakes again

Drove up to Eagle Lakes again off 80 at the Eagle Lakes exit near Yuba Gap. This is a good trail in winter and spring when the days are short and the weather is iffy. It's an OHV area so during the summer and on good days you may encounter too much dust and noise for a good hiking experience. Plus, I'm guessing the OHVers would rather not be on the alert for meandering hikers.

We made good time to the summit (at about 1.5 miles) and stopped for a drink. Encountered no one and had interesting views of a half moon over Old Man Mountain.

Got a little lost near the lakes because the map does not really correspond to reality. Took a spur trail to the east end of the biggest lake in the group and enjoyed another rest.

Commando thought he could see something in the water so he spent some time up to his belly in the water, leaning forward eagerly then leaping back onto shore when whatever he could see underwater did something scary. It was very cute.

We hiked back up and continued on to the west most end of the lake and got onto the Grouse Lakes trail for a few minutes till it crossed over the (now dry) stream between a small lake and the big lake.

I sat on a sunny log and watched Commando experiment with the thin ice. I had tossed some little sticks on the top and he wanted to get them, but couldn't quite figure it out. He would push with his chest and lean forward and not reach. Then he would run out on the bank and circle around looking at the sticks from other angles. Finally he discovered that he could use his paw to break the ice and get close enough to touch the stick but he couldn't quite pick it up. He tried for probably 20 minutes.

On the way back I nearly killed him. There was a very small lake at the side of the trail and I meant to throw the stick in at the very edge. I chucked it over a log and about 4 feet out. Commando leapt over the log and swam to the stick. Of course, on the other side he can't leap because he can't touch bottom. He started to swim back out and I called to him and he scrambled over the log (pokey things on top) and made it back to shore. He seems to tolerate the cold very well and seemed to enjoy the icy water but I didn't want to test his endurance under those conditions. I'm sometimes surprised at how well he tolerates cold because he's got thin fur on his belly so he's not really bred for snow and ice...but he loves it.

We encountered two people on the way back and had no further adventures.

This is probably best in the spring, as soon as enough snow has melted to make the trail passable but before the OHVers get outdoors. It is good in the fall and winter too. It's not good enough (other than the views of Old Man Mountain) for more than a nice walk.