Memorial Weekend 2013, Day 1

Patrols 14 and 6 made our way out to Salida for the weekend to do some camping and wheeling. We had a large group show up for Saturday and so we split into 2 groups. One group tackled the mammoth snow on Hancock. I led a group up Mary Murphy mine. The mill portion of the mine was only 1 mile from the main county road, and we officially made it 1.3 miles. There were some deep drifts at that point, and we were not there for just snow busting so we turned around and headed for another trail.

We next hit up Baldwin Lakes/Mt Antero. From the main country road, we made it just shy of 5 miles on Baldwin. A couple of use busted fresh trail for about 1.3 miles until we turned around. We headed towards Antero were we only made it 1 mile past the split at the lake. At this point there was off camber snow drifts dropping into the creek. This was not the time for that.

Next on the list was Grizzly Lake. Last year the rock wall eluded me and I was determined to climb it unassisted this year. The wall is only about .2 miles in. Only a 4 of us crossed the creek and attempted the wall, but only 3 were successful. I finally climbed my way up. As well as Ben, and Pete. We turned around and called it a day after this.

Memorial Weekend 2012

To begin the long weekend, Ryan actually joined Patrol 6 down in St. Elmo to run some trails in that area. Saturday they ran Iron Chest and made it about 3/4 of the way through the trail before they were greeted with a very large snow drift. The patrol members dug through the first drift only to find lager drifts farther down the trail.

They decided to turn around and head down to Grizzley Lake.

(Ryan's Co-Pilot for the weekend)

Grizzley Lake was actually very dry through the whole trail. The wall out of the river seems to get worse every year and this year it seemed very dug out. There were only 2 rigs that made it up the wall without some kind of tug.

On Sunday, the Patrol ran Mt Antero and Baldwin Lakes. Just like the day before, the first trail had some giant, unpassable drifts higher up, but the second trail was clear to the top. At the top of Baldwin Lakes there is a mine shaft that has been frozen solid all the wey to the entrance for a number of years. With each passing year, more ice melts and the solid sheet retreats farther and farther back into the shaft. This year, we were actually able to get up on top of the ice and found a hole in it, where we discovered that the ice is actually hollow! The very center of the shaft is clear and I expect us to retrun next year and be able to follow the shaft for a ways back.