Hi folks, welcome to backpacking year 2023, in which we'll be asking "trail, what trail?" a lot.

April 1 is California's historical average snowpack peak, which we're quickly approaching. Due to a long series of storms passing through this winter we are looking at new snowfall records up and down the mountain range. As of March 24:

--North region, Sierra and Trinity, 182% of normal for date, 180% of April 1 average.

--Central Sierra, 227% of normal for date, 230% of April 1 average.

--Southern Sierra, 282% of normal for date, 286% of April 1 average.

--Statewide summary, 225% of normal for date, 228% of April 1 average.

Unless we have a ghoulishly hot summer, a lot of high country will remain snowbound all year, and creeks and rivers will be much higher than usual. OTOH wildfire in the high country should be rare and habitat hit hard by three years of extreme drought will get a break.

Plan accordingly,

Cheers,
_________________________
--Rick