Early Season Sierra hack

This weekend our youngest daughter came home for a wedding, and wanted to fit in amn overnight backpacking trip. But we knew all too well that the options were pretty limited, since so many of the trailheads are not accessible due to snow, and the rest would certainly be crowded.

But I had an idea. A number of the backcountry roads in the Stanislaus National Forest are still closed due to the amazing amount of snow still on the ground. Those roads are open for hikers, however. And so we left our cabin near Twain Harte and hiked into the Stanislaus National Forest via the Eagle Meadows Road. We only had a few hours to hike in, so we stopped at Niagara Creek and set up camp. It was lovely, and we didn't see a soul.

I even caught a nice rainbow out of the very fast and high creek, and we explored some of the rock formations above the campground after dinner. It was a bit odd, backpacking in a campground, with a picnic table at our disposal, but it was also pretty convenient. And it beat hiking through snow all day (we only had a few stretches of deep now on the road). We also noted that there were any number of potential campsites along the way, and water was not an issue, since there was water, water everywhere thanks to the melting snow.

[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Vg_PCM...LU=w779-h584-no[/img]

Now we have plan for those early season hikes. Instead of waiting impatiently for the snow to melt higher up, we can tackle some of these roads early in the year, and still get quality time in the mountains. And we got to hike with our daughter. Nice.

Photos are here: https://goo.gl/photos/ZYjTEtHM6ZoNQ8yS9

Looks nice. I am trying to understand why that stretch of road is closed. Did you have to hike through an impassable snow field to get there?

These roads are closed for lots of different reasons. First of all, they are not plowed, so they don't open until they are driveable. Secondly, there can be trees across the road, and other issues. And thirdly, sometimes they are closed to protect wildlife (a certain frog breeds in some of the potholes in some roads...)

That said, the road we took had only a few patches of snow in the first few miles, although one of those was about 75 feet long, and 2-3 feet deep. Big enough to slow most 4WD down, at least. And the road had some water drainage issues. If you were to open it today, and clear that snow, my guess is that few sections would be heavily damaged due to erosion and pressure.