[pct-l] Hiking in Big Bear

[walkaboutman at hotmail.com (John Milner)]

I just hiked from my house up to the PCT on an unoffical trail and there was 
no snow until I reached the top. On the north side of the mountain and on 
the PCT, there was about 3 feet of snow in drifts with many bare spots 
around the base of trees. Just two weeks ago there was at least 4 foot of 
snow everywhere. There were no tracks.
I was able to walk across the top of the snow with very little post-holing, 
sinking into the snow about 6 inches. I hiked the PCT for 2 1/2 miles until 
I came to Van Dusen road. About 2/3 of that 2 1/2 miles had no snow on the 
trail at all. The trail was in great shape. At least the parts that I could 
see. There were 4 down trees across the trail in this 2 1/2 miles. I had to 
ford Caribu Creek as the bridge was under water and the creek was 25 feet 
wide at the bridge (the bridge is only 10 feet long). The water was only a 
foot deep but moving pretty good, but no problem.
The problem hike was down Van Dusen road. The road had 2 1/2 to 3 foot of 
snow on it for over 2 miles. There were no tracks until the lower section. I 
was constantly post-holing here. It made for a very long 2+ miles.
Total round trip miles was about 8 miles and I was carrying a 25 pound pack. 
It took me 5 hours but I stopped for a long lunch and many times to play 
with my new miniDV camcorder.
Walkabout

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