Duane, I got down to relatively bare ground before starting it.
I usually don't carry a fire pan, and sometimes when the snows have been 4' deep, it's made it very hard to keep it going. The hemlock forests are great for making fires, there's always lots of deadwood. We've got 30" on the ground now and we're going tomorrow . I see the Sierra is finally getting some snow!!!!!!!!, I hope you get out and enjoy it. From the sounds of things, We had more snow the first week of Oct. in the Sierra than there was for a lot of the winter. Hope it ends with a bang.