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[pct-l] Julian snow report
I got the following report from my dad, who lives near San Diego. He
drove out to Julian today and took a look around at the snow levels:
There is snow on Mt. Laguna - about 4 to 6 inches
in the village proper. The temperature today was teeshirts and shorts
weather. Snow melt is flowing in every low place that is visible. Based
on my memories of Nebraska I estimate that unless the predicted storm
hits this weekend most of the snow will be gone by Sunday or Monday.
(there will probably be some scattered patches of snow in heavily shaded
ravines or on north facin slopes) Even as I am keying this in people are
already hiking the PCT!
There was a family at Mt. Laguna with three middle school age children
and back packs that seemed to be somewhat lost. I went over and asked if
they were hiking the PCT, and they replied that they were, but they had
encountered a 6 foot drift east of town that they could not cross
because they had no ice axes. They spoke passable broken english with a
heavy slavic accent; and when I asked, they replied that they were
Russians from Moscow who had come to the US to hike the PCT. They were
hoping to catch a ride a few miles north to get around the snow. His
name was Igor, her name was Victoria. I replied that my little Mustang
would be hard
pressed to haul 6 people even without packs, but that we could see what
me might do.We finally managed to shove the packs into the car, and with
the kids, Katya, Kolya and Sergei stacked like cord wood on top of
everything; I told the parents that I would drive to where S1 dead ends
into highway 79 and unload the kids and packs at a safe location north
of that intersection. The parents had a guide book to PCT which was
printed in Cyrillic characters and estimated that this would be a
distance of 6 miles, and would either catch a ride with someone else or
walk down the road. The drive was closer to 15 miles, and as we traveled
it dawned on me what was bothering me. Neither the kids nor the parents
had shoes, much less hiking boots. They were hiking in sandals! The
sandals and socks were soaked! I was driving along hoping not to meet a
sheriff or a ranger and thinking that I would have to stay with the kids
until the parents got there. We finally got to the 79, and I pulled off
onto a wide dry shoulder with a nice grassy slope that appeared to be
fairly dry and started unloading the packs. I swear that the father's
pack must have weighed 75 pounds. I almost got a hernia just lifting it
out of the trunk. Just as I had all of the packs on the slope and was
about to explain to the kids that I would stay until their parents
arrived a border patrol van pulled in right behind me. I damn near shit.
I had just unloaded 3 non-citizens whose last name I didn't know and, I
suspected had no proof that they were in the country legally (since I
assumed one of the parents was carrying the passports). Then I realized
that Victoria was sitting in front with the border patrol agent and Igor
was sitting in the cage in the back. They seemed to be genuinely amazed
that people were so willing to help them, and offered payment which I
refused. They insisted on taking a photograph of me with the kids, and
since I had my camera with me I took one of the family for my own.
In summary, there is snow at Mt. Laguna. Enough for sledding and
snowball fights, but you would have to work your hiney off to make a
decent snowman. I don't think you would find enough snow in Julian for a
snowball fight. I decided not to make an issue of the family hiking in
sandals. Maybe their feet and ankles are tough enough to handle it.
Oh yes, there was some haze in the air and my mountain to the north did
not show signs of snow. Perhaps it is not San Jacinto but some lower
mountain or perhaps the snow is so dirty that it is not reflecting much
light.
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