A group of BPL members got together last weekend for a snowshoe overnighter to Aspen Meadow near Pinecrest. The roster included me, David, Jeremy, Morgan, Jack, Kat, Josh and Ocean. We met at Dave's place in MoTown on Saturday morning and headed up to the trailhead near Dodge Ridge Ski Area.
We ate lunch at the trailhead and finally got started about noon. Our destination was 2.5 miles out along a mostly uphill snow-covered Forest Service road. While there were a few people around at the trailhead, we didn't get too far before we found ourselves all alone.
We ended up walking to a clearing just past Aspen Meadow and set up camp. This was the first time snow camping for a number of us, myself included. There is quite a bit of extra work involved (prepping a shelter spot, constantly melting snow, etc.); so we got busy!
First things first, we all set up our accommodations. As usual, there were quite a variety of shelters. Morgan had a palatial 10x10 Oware pyramid tarp, Josh brought a hammock, there were several varieties of tarptents and I had a make-shift fly-and-footprint-only REI rig.
After we set up our shelters, Jeremy suggested we build a group kitchen, so we did that too. Very cool (pardon the pun). After that, it was melting snow, eating and drinking from there on out.
In the morning, we ate breakfast and hung out for a while. Half our group decided to stay over Sunday night, so the rest of us packed up and headed out.
Snow camping was a great experience. The scenery is beautiful and there are no bugs, no people, no heat, no dust. Sure, it's a little cold, but that's manageable. I look forward to many more snow trips in the future.
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