So for the birthday weekend I decided I wanted to squeeze in one last snow trip before it became too hot. Since the significant other wanted to see some snow covered lakes, we opted for a nice 2 night/3 day trip to Little Lakes Valley. The plan was to depart from the snopark and set up camp halfway to the LLV. We would dayhike the rest of the way up.
Seeing that the forecast was calling for some wind and the sensors were reading high 30mph winds, we opted to take our 4-season tents this time around. After packing everything last minute thursday night, we left for the Bishop at around 5am and arrived at the White Mountain Ranger Station 4-5 hours laters. I must say, Ranger Stanley is absolutely the most friendly ranger I have ever met! If you're ever around in Bishop, be sure to stop by to say hi!
After getting our permits and snopark passes, we drove north for another 40 minutes to arrive the Rock Creek snopark (East Fork campground). Thankfully the forecast was off as it was a nice and bright sunny day. We could hear some wind but it wasn't hitting the area we were in.
We got on the trail around 2pm and found that the road crews were able to plow about a quarter of mile to the rock creek cabin so that was somewhat nice. According to them, it would probably take them another 2-3 weeks to reach the Lodge and eventually the lake.
Walking down the plowed road in what felt like 60F+. Though it was nicer walking on solid ground, it felt scorching hot! For once, I felt like walking on snow would be better...Thankfully the snow wasn't too far away
After a slow and grueling 3.5 mile uphill we were awarded with a nice view of the snow-covered Rock Creek Lake and the Lodge
After going alittle bit further, we found a nice campsite and called it a night after enjoying some Chili Mac and Hot chocolate. It was about 11F with some mild wind when we went to sleep but we felt pretty toasty.
Woke up around 6am (sun was already out) and started our day off by having some pancakes, hashbrowns, bacon, and coffee!
After a quick clean up, we got on our way. There was a ton of snow!
Someone decided to have fun with an ice "weapon"
Ran into some areas where the exposed creek provided fresh awesome tasting high sierra water!
We decided to take our lunch break around one of the exposed creek areas
After enjoying some cliff bars... and a lot of M&Ms we continued on our merry way to the Valley
Some more grueling uphills to go. By now we were all pretty tired. The hike out the day before was tough. In summer, a 1200 feet gain wouldn't have been an issue but with snowshoes on...yea we were running on fumes
BUT....the view made it all worth it
Ashley was loving the view
For me....I was a bit too knackered to be enjoying it. However, I did enjoy a nice 20 minute nap on some warm rocks!
During our break, we noticed that some butterfly had been following us since the last uphill section... we weren't sure how the thing had survived out here
After enjoying the view for a few more minutes, we opted to head down to the snow covered Mack Lake and head back to camp
Our good friend Wei standing on top of Mack Lake
Ashley trying to reach the lake...
We did run into another group heading back. According to them, they were coming from the snopark and we're trying to reach Mack Lake. They sure looked knackered as they were not expecting the extra 3.5 miles added to their trip as the road hadn't been plowed to rock creek lake (Trip then was 7.2ish miles for them).
We eventually made it back to camp and Wei dug out a pretty nice kitchen
Cooked up some Thai Curry w/ chicken and Veggies + Hot choco
Was about to call it a night but we decided that after a hard days hike, we deserved more food...we ended up cooking our extra dinner meal and Had Thai Curry + Chili Mac.
While cooking up our extra meal, some clouds and wind moved in and we thought oh crap here's the wind/bad weather that was forecasted.
Luckily the wind never got too bad but the temperatures did drop down to about 8F. Now I'm not sure what happened but I think as a result of eating 2 dinner meals, our bodies were releasing a huge amount of heat. We actually overheated and had to vent our 0F sleeping bags!
The next morning we woke up pretty early to catch the sunrise (wasn't able to get any good shots of it).
Made some bacon bfast burritos and coffee
Dried up the gear
20170416_071906 by kevin do, on FlickrThen spent quite sometime digging out all the snow anchors...Thanks to the melt/freeze cycle, it took quite a bit of effort to get em all out. We were finally able to pack up and hit the trail by 10:30 and reached the car by 1.
On our way out, we noticed this strange small clouds that had a rainbow effect around their edges. These clouds were incredibly bright compared to the other more "normal" ones. The camera wasn't really able to catch the rainbows.
Short but enjoyable trip. The views on the way home were awesome! Lots of snow on the Eastern Sierra and even some on the Panamint range.
Definitely a great last "snow" trip for the year!
