The
destination of this snowshoe trip was to a small man-made
tarn (pond) in Washoe Gulch, near St. Mary's Glacier, about
10 miles north of Idaho Springs. I have been by this pond
many times over the years, but always in the dry months, from
spring until late fall. I've always been curious to see what
it looked like all iced over in the middle of winter, so I
called up my friend Jim, and away we went, along with his
2 yellow lab pups, Molly and Sophie. We snowshoed about 2-1/4
miles round trip, but I think the pups hiked (ran) about 5
miles on the same trip. I wished I had their energy.
It
was a cool, cloudy day and the temps during the hike were
probably in the mid 30's, but the wind was calm and it wasn't
snowing, so made for good snowshoeing conditions. The hike
started at the switchback about 1 mile above the turnoff to
Alice, starting up the Cumberland jeep trail. I have a geocache
hidden on this route (see
Cumberland Geocache).
The
first 1/2 mile was gradual uphill through the aspens and not
real strenuous. The next 1/2 mile was level with southern
exposure and easy going. The winds had caused the snow to
drift into "peaks" which we hiked along. The final
1/10 mile was up Washoe Gulch and the steepest part of the
trip but only moderately strenuous.
For
the most part, the snow was wind packed along the entire route
and we were able to walk on top of the snow without sinking
into powder. And to my surprise, parts of the road on the
final tenth mile was exposed dirt. I was expecting the last
part to be deep powdered snow and much tougher hiking, but
it was protected enough and had minimal snow in parts.
Another
secondary goal of the trip, was to scout out possible camping
places for some winter camping up here next year. By seeing
how the snows drift, pile up, and more importantly where there
is minimal snow, we can determine where would be a good camping
spot. If we actually do some winter camping here, there will
be more posts and pics to come.
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on images below for larger image |
