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[pct-l] VVR online & yo-yo
Hello from the VVR at Edison Lake Ca
I have been trying for 3 years to get on line from the store and after
some of the most "Walt Disney" conections and cellular wiring of
antennas it has finally happened. I'm not sure how good or how long the
connection is. But we are online. Some of you may not even know what
1200 baud is, it so old and slow. But thats the speed we are traveling
at now. I will work on picking that up. Until that happens you can try
email or better yet the business line at 209 259-4000.
Scott "LETITBE" Williamson on his second try at Mexico-Canada-Mexico
came through on 5/21 and stayed several days. He said he was so far
ahead of his schedule that he wanted to take a little R&R and do a
little fishing. We enjoyed his company and got to know him quite well.
He is a interesting young man, who expects to be back at the VVR on
10/7. I asked Scott to do a trail report for this list. He was more than
willing I'm just sorry its a few days late. We are expecting the the
next group to be in sometime next week. And will try to have a few of
them send a post.
Good Luck to the Class of 97
Butch Wiggs
Vermilion Valley Resort
Edison Lake CA
http://edisonlake.com
Scott's words;
All of the following information is subject to change
and has been dated to help with its assimilation
>
> Starting at and working north from Aqua Dulce CA.
>
> On 5/3/97 Bear spring was running, but had a ‘cow pie’ in its source, so be aware of potential illness if not treating water. Seasonal spring 1.6 miles north of Elizabeth lake canyon road was flowing very good on 5/3/97. Go up above trail 75 ft to find the best flow. about 2.3 miles north of Atmore meadows spur road is red rock tank. It is 200 ft to the right and plainly visible from the trail. It is a storage tank for fire fighting. Access by removing lid on top. It was full on 5/4/97. on 5/5/97 Tylerhorse canyon was flowing at about 15 gallons a minute. At the time of this update I would guess it has already gone dry. Golden oak spring running fine. On 5/8/97 Mc Iver spring running very well. Water at walker pass campground turned on as of 5/8/97. Many streams in Chimmny creek area running well as of 5/9/97. The following snow conditions are very subject to change as I have observed a very fast rate of snow melt in the high sierra in the past ten days averaging 2-4” o!
f melt a day!!
> North of Kennedy meadows there is no really solid snow until just north of trail pass, where as of 5/13/97 there was about 4-5 ft. On 5/14/97 cottonwood pass was solid cover of 2-4 ft. Same date slopes north of there 70% covered 2-6 ft. Also on same date flat area between chicken spring lake and rock creek was 85% cover of 2-5 ft making compass navigation a must. South slopes above rock creek 100% cover 3-7 ft. On 5/14/97 crab tree meadow 95% cover 1-4 ft. On same date area between there and ridge just south of Wallace creek, 60% cover 2-4 ft. Slope south of Wallace creek 100% cover 4-8 ft. Wallace creek to Bighorn plateau 85% cover 3-6 ft. From here on I will list conditions by elevation as beyond this point they seemed very uniform, except for the passes. On 5/15/97 Forester pass lower head wall still covered. All upper switch backs were melted out, including the last few short ones just below the pass. However the chute just below the pass was still filled with hard blu!
e ice. 2 hours of exposed step chopping to cross 20 ft of chute. Top of pass corniced but easy to surmount. North side of pass solid snow cover down to about 9300 ft. Observed avalanche hazard:moderate. On 5/16/97 Glenn pass. south side of pass 85% covered. Top nearly melted out. North side Covered down to 9500 ft. Rae lakes still frozen solid. On 5/17/97 Pichot pass. south side on snow above 9800 ft. South head wall 95% covered fairly easy to negotiate. Top melted out. North side 85-90% covered down to south fork of kings river. Good place to cross river 100 yards down stream where it splits into three channels. On same date from there back on solid snow after 2 1/2 miles. South side of Mather pass 100% covered. Top heavily corniced and no where near melted out. To avoid cornice scramble on rocks to left and drop into pass. North side of pass solid cover to the golden staircase. Observed one avalanche in progress here. Danger high use caution. Palisade lakes still both froze!
n solid. On same date golden stair case 10% covered. Nothing too bad. on 5/19/97 big Pete meadow to evolution valley north over Muir pass, solid 100% cover 4-16 FIT!!!! Evolution creek running very high on 5/20/97. If high, go 1/3-1/2 mile down stream to sandy bottomed crossing about as deep as where trail crosses, but water is flow only 1/2 as fast. On 5/21/97 not on solid snow until within 2 1/2 miles of Selden(guide book spelling) or Seldon (spelling on sign on top of pass) pass. Although both south and north sides of pass covered 100%, no problems at all going over. In general the snow as of these dates had not consolidated at all. Thus hiking on it is fairly easy until about 11 A.M. beyond this time it gets very mushy. By mid afternoon sinking in anywhere from mid shin to waist deep. I expect this will change fast though as it has been fairly warm. Average temps for week of 5/14 to 5/21 obsevered at 10,500 ft. 6 AM -24 deg.; 9 AM-45 deg; 12 PM-60 deg; 3 PM-65 deg!
; 6 PM-55 deg; 9 PM -30 deg.
> These conditions are changing very rapidly. Also of note last winter produced some of the most tremendous avalanches I have seen on that stretch of the PCT in recent years. I saw several still frozen lakes with sometimes dozens of uprooted trees out on the middle of the ice, carried there by the slides. Also of note the one avalanche I did observe was a small sized slush slide involving the top foot or so or snow.
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