Drove up to Icehouse to try the hike Andy and I did the other weekend except this time turn right at the intersection. The weather was supposed to be bad, but it was worse than I thought. Ran into fog so heavy in Pollock Pines that the CHP was escorting vehicles west bound. It rained almost constantly with occasional gusts of downpour. There was no snow until we got to the top of Icehouse road and there was only about a foot of snow left.
I put the raincoat and snowshoes on and Commando and I headed off down the forest service road. The snow was very slushy and not supportive. The snow turned to mush underfoot. Commando had the worst of it as his feet just aren't as good as snowshoes.
When we got to the steel bridge, that was the end of the trip. I carefully crossed the bridge with the snow breaking down underneath my feet and hissing into icy Silver Creak. I tried to coax Commando across, and even tried to get him to lie on my jacket and drag him across but he would have none of it. His feet kept dropping into the abyss and he didn't like it.
We headed back to the car and then drove to Icehouse Lake. We parked at the dam and walked across. My plan, before it got very dark, was to walk to a little prominence just past the dam. Well, we were stopped by a steep cut that let overflow water bypass the dam in wet seasons. If it had been earlier in the day I might have tried to go down and back up to continue, but the sun was setting and I didn't want to get covered in mud and soaked to the skin and discover that there was a wet, muddy climb back up in the pitch dark.
We finished up with a tiny bit of stick throwing on the shore and then drove home through the pouring rain.
Oh well, there were some good views of water vapor rising from the dark green hills on the drive down so the day wasn't a complete waste.
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