So I finally got a trip in, and my apologies (especially to chick-on), there's no pictures as I left the damn camera at home charging. Anyways, I got off Sunday afternoon and went up to the Eleanor Lake trailhead. We didn't get too far on the first night as I didn't get to the trailhead until 715, so we stayed the first night at the Kibbie Creek crossing off that trailhead. The second day we crossed the creek and cut off the trail and went up the canyon. I have to say, I was very impressed by that canyon. It was like Cherry Canyon, just more mellow. The next day we worked up the canyon and hooked into the Kibbie Lake Trail which we stayed on for about ten minutes before shooting through one of the slots and working around to the back of the lake. That night we stayed above the lake at about 6900 close to the unnamed creek that flows into the north west side of the Kibbie Lake. And finally this morning we cut up from where we camped to Kibbie Ridge and hooked into that trail right below sheepherder spring which is between Lookout Point and Sachse Spring. As always the view looking down on Cherry Canyon is spectacular. The creek was roaring by Flintstone Camp and most of the water was white.
Ok, here's some random info:
The road up to the Shingle Springs/Kibbie Lake trailhead is still blocked. When we called the Forest Service and they did invite us to clear it ourselves. And honestly, if I owned a chainsaw I would have. It wouldn't be more than a 30 minute job.
Snow level is patchy at 7100, its wide open below that. Another week to ten days and it'll be at 8000. It's melting off pretty fast.
I wasn't on the Kibbie Lake trail for more than a few minutes, but what I was on looked pretty bad. There seemed to be more downed trees than last year.
On the other hand, the Kibbie Ridge trail from Lookout Point down to the parking lot was actually in really good shape, all things considered. There were only 3 or 4 more trees downed from last season. The deepest snow we came across was 2 and a half feet. Most of it was less than a foot.
Absolutely no ice on Kibbie Lake.
I did see a few mosquitoes out already, I'd expect it to be pretty bad soon.
The weather was spectacular during the day, probably mid to low 60s. The first two nights at lower elevation it wasn't that cold, maybe mid to high 40s. The last night (tuesday) it was a little chilly at the elevation we were at. When I got up in the middle of the night the condensation on my tent was frozen.
Again, my apologies to everyone for not having pictures. Oh well, hopefully I can take a few next week...