[pct-l] Avoiding snow in Northern Cal.

[Nathan Miller]

> That’s early for the usual thru-hiker crowd – meaning
> few/no tracks -- so
> route-finding and overall progress will be slow.

It's early even for the section-hiker crowd.  Last weekend in OR-B was essentially my first real snow-hiking experience.  The mile or so of snow just south of Hwy. 66 wasn't bad.  I had a few hours of son-of-a-motherless-goat moments on Old Baldy.  It was slow, frustrating, really tough on the knees (really good way to hyper-extend if you have knee issues), I post-holed (twice up to my hip) a lot, my feet got DRENCHED.  Overall, I guess it wasn't the disaster it seemed to be at the time.  I learned a lot, though.

-Nate the Trail Zombie
Newberg, OR