Saturday, February 5, 2011

Deep Powder Day in Indiana Creek

About 1 mile into our route - about a foot of powder
and it only got deeper the rest of the route!
Notice no tracks/trail in front of us -
we were "blazing trail in 1-3 feet of powder"!
Woke up to some fresh (and still falling) powder this morning - this got Max, Zorro & I itching for the trails. Little did we know what had been developing an extra 1,000 to 2,000 feet in elevation (over our base elevation of 9600 ft) up in the neighboring wilderness!

Our plan: go enjoy 4-6 inches of powder in Indiana Creek (we had 3-4 inches at home).

The reality: after the first mile, we never saw powder less than 1 foot and it was up to 3 feet in places (remember Max & Zorro are under 2 feet tall - so these 3 foot areas were quite the exercise event)!!! After the first 1/4 mile, all previous tracks were invisible - we were blazing trail, in deepening powder, for most of the day! The snow was coming down so hard in Indiana Creek that our own "up trail" was invisible most of the return trip down! Wow - deep powder day in Indiana Creek!


The Route: Indiana Creek winter trailhead up Indiana Creek trail (powdered over existing tracks for the first 1/4 mile to the winter gate on the jeep trail); no tracks after the winter gate - increasingly deep powder from the winter gate to the Spruce Valley gun range; 1 foot of fresh powder after the gun range - it never got less than 1 foot the rest of the trip, hitting 3 feet in areas; continue up Indiana Creek towards Dyersville; take a break at the Indiana Creek/Dyersville junction; return back down the same route.

Vital Stats: 5.1 miles; 95m total time; 85m moving time; 3.6 MPH moving average; 12 MPH top speed. Remember 1-3 feet of fresh powder most of the route: Max & Zorro say, "You try moving your 'under 2 foot body' through this much powder faster than 3.6 MPH!"
Approaching the Dyersville junction. Snowing, snowing, snowing!
Zorro checking the conditions: head covered in snow, powder up to his mid-body - "perfect" he says ;-)
Max taking a break under a tree at our high/turnaround point.

No comments:

Post a Comment