Had a nice little adventure yesterday off the beaten track. First intended to take the paved road in to Upper Blue Lake and just do some hiking around with my wife and youngest daughter. We discussed the trip with the Amador Ranger Station in the morning, and were pleased to hear that the road was still open, unlike the high passes on Hwy 4, and Hwy 120.
Murphy is alive and well however, and through some confused directions we ended up taking the western route in, which is unpaved. No worries. I have a Jeep.
We hadn't gone far until we found some moderate sized water holes in the road, and they were all well frozen over. Not deterred, we pressed on. We ran across a couple of women who were hiking, and another family who had driven up a little higher than the hikers, so we knew we were not alone up there.
But the higher we went the more snow/ice we found. Still, nothing too hairy though, so on we went, encouraged by the thought that we were not really alone. When we got up to about 8500 ft., the road became a little more like an offroad trail than a dirt road, and became pretty icy, and began to run along a drop off I really didn't want to fall off of. At that point, I said heck with it; it's just no longer worth the risk.
So we stopped and played a bit in the snow and ice, took some pictures, and headed back down. I'm looking forward to getting back up there when the roads are actually clear. I think that will be a nice mild little trail into an area that promises to be a beautiful place for some high elevation R&R. Hope you like the pics.
Sunset was nice on the way home.
Murphy is alive and well however, and through some confused directions we ended up taking the western route in, which is unpaved. No worries. I have a Jeep.
We hadn't gone far until we found some moderate sized water holes in the road, and they were all well frozen over. Not deterred, we pressed on. We ran across a couple of women who were hiking, and another family who had driven up a little higher than the hikers, so we knew we were not alone up there.
But the higher we went the more snow/ice we found. Still, nothing too hairy though, so on we went, encouraged by the thought that we were not really alone. When we got up to about 8500 ft., the road became a little more like an offroad trail than a dirt road, and became pretty icy, and began to run along a drop off I really didn't want to fall off of. At that point, I said heck with it; it's just no longer worth the risk.
So we stopped and played a bit in the snow and ice, took some pictures, and headed back down. I'm looking forward to getting back up there when the roads are actually clear. I think that will be a nice mild little trail into an area that promises to be a beautiful place for some high elevation R&R. Hope you like the pics.
Sunset was nice on the way home.