[pct-l] Fwd: re: conditions So of Belden...

[Georgi Heitman]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Georgi Heitman <bobbnweav at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 4:35 PM
Subject: So of Belden...
To: hetchhetchyman at aol.com


Maintenance on the trail to the south, I can't answer to...but even in heavy
late snow years...it clears off much sooner than north of Belden does.  It's
for the most part, due to the terrain's ability to get spring
sunshine...remembering that 'spring' doesn't always reach the 'high' country
til early June.   With the weather we've had, it snowed at Old Station off
and on all day Easter and yesterday as well as several inches more last
night, by the way, getting out of Belden to the north could be a crap shoot
before the last week in June...in '06, the first folks thru Lassen Nat'l Pk.
and into Belden were southbound and they left here on the 4th of July.  That
was the year that Easter was mid-April, and we woke up that morning to 3 1/2
feet of fresh snow which finally quit that afternoon at 4 feet.  It equated
to 17 feet of new stuff over the park summit, and the night's were cold
enough, in spite of warm, sunny days down here at 4550' that there was very
little melt off for about 6 to 7 weeks...streams were roaring when hikers
started making it over the trail summit...in fact folk were getting thru the
High Sierra before anyone made it between Belden and Castle Crags St Pk to
our north.  The only stretch that was really open was between here and a bit
north of Burney Falls St. Pk.  Plan accordingly, especially anyone thinking
of section hiking...altho the Hat Creek Rim should be open.  Weather up
there is especially nasty in a storm however, as some folks found out during
a really ugly Memorial Day weekend.
Happy Trails,
FireFly from
The Hideaway at Old Station