Updates

Fine Line Today a student's parents sent a cousin (adult) to check up on the student's report card with the teachers. I tired to be as accurate as possible with what was going on with that student in my classroom. But no matter what I said, the cousin seemed to twist it and blow it way out of proportion, making the student sound horrible, when really this student is among my brightest and favorites. After the mini-conference, the student was obviously very upset and so was I at the response of the cousin. I was worried about what the cousin would say to the parents and the effect that would have on the student so I told the student that I would call home after school to talk directly to the parents to try to clear things up. I started the conversation with "I talked to the cousin and I think she got the wrong impression, she seemed to blow things way out of proportion" but no luck. All I got in return is some, "I don't know what you do but you teachers should..." crap. The mom was just about the same as the cousin. Hard tones. Almost shouting at me that I should have called earlier if there were any problems. But I did call! She says, "You didn't talk to no one in this house about [student]!" Oh, I keep records! And I could hear in the background the dad sheepishly said, "I did talk to her." I get so frustrated with parents. There is just no telling what they will do or how they will react. There are some parents that you have to complain and complain for them to even lift a brow towards the child and their behavior and then there are parents like today who will make their children suffer. I guess this is why I have great thoughts of calling parents during the school day but when I get home to actually call, I sit around doing other things, not wanting to ruin my mood with parents' issues. Other School News I found out at the staff meeting today that I am not going to teach tomorrow. I'm glad someone told me the news! I'm going to spend the day with 3 other staff members planing the advisory curriculum for the next several months. It is a mixed blessing. On one hand, a neighbor teacher said I should take a sick day since I've been feeling tired and run down lately (not entirely caused by school). On the other hand, 4 of my classes were supposed to have a test on Friday, 2 of the classes still will, the other 2 (the geo's) will be postponed. Old Testament Grant's bible class is having a huge history test tomorrow so he is busy with our neighbor, Judith, studying away. It is rare that I see him study so much at night. If fact it is often very hard for me to see the work that he does. This makes both of us frustrated. To the Alma Alumni You would all be so proud of me. Just last week a fellow teacher and I started the Castle Adventure Club. (castle is for castlemont, the high school I work at). Our first project is a fundraiser: Halloween CandyGrams. I'm not sure what the first trip will be. A walk in the park? Indoor climbing? Golden Gate Bridge? Mt. Tam? We'll see.

Biking (Mountain definition)

The word "mountain" has turned more into a regional homograph as we have learned more about living in Berkeley and so close to the Berkeley Hills and Marin County. (Homograph= two words with the same spelling but different meanings). We thought... Marin County- the home of mountain biking- it'll be great! (For those of you new to SF geography, Marin County is part of the "North Bay" region. It is the county north of the Golden Gate Bridge and across the bay from Berkeley/Richmond/Oakland/East Bay areas. I suppose in the baby days of mountain biking, the art of throwing yourself down a hill, on a bike, as if trying out for a "yahoo" drink commercial was created. Thus there has been this fear built up in loud mouth day hikers (who seek political action) of getting run down by an out of control mountain biker who neglected to call out prior to passing. And that brings us to the depressing state of our regional parks where all of the boring "road" looking trails are open to all and the more interesting single track trails are just for hiking and horses.

Now, when one enters the real mountains of our area, those of the Sierra Nevadas, a new perspective of mountain biking is formed... well at least on the Nevada side of the Tahoe Rim Trail. There mountain bikers and backpackers can co-exist. The trails are interesting and moderately challenging for a bike and you really are on a mountain! Thank goodness for Tahoe and the Sierra Nevadas. If we were stuck in CA without Lake Tahoe to go hiking around, mountains to go skiing among and the possibility of doing real mountain biking, we'd just about go crazy.

TRT Much needed rest day

It was hard to go to sleep last night because my legs were uncomfortable. But tiredness took over and I slept solid until 7am. We arose, continued our laundry and went down to the main building to officially check-in and pick up our resupply box which had the pancake mix in it.

So, The Echo Lakes Chalet is a green building that provides many services. They have a postoffice and small grocery store with great ice cream. They have boats, canoes, and kayaks for day rentals and they offer water taxi rides across the lake. Many hikers enjoy the water taxi because it saves you about 2-3 miles of walking along the lake, especially for day hikers that want to get to Desolation Wilderness quickly. It also services many of the cottages around the lake which do not have any road access. The chalet also has 8 chaletlees which are small cabins that each have their own kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom and a huge walk around porch to sit in the sun on. We got good at sitting that day. We planned for lunch to be deli sandwiches from the store, followed by ice cream. We sat and watched the fisherpeople.

Inside our cabin, we put two bar stools in the kitchen so we could sit as we made dinner and continued the laundry. Dinner was fabulous. A box of cheap red wine accompanied our veggie chili with pan fried corn bread (no oven) and fritos. We sat outside to eat and enjoyed the lake. We talked about coming back with Jen and Craig, two friend from church and PSR, or other friends from far away that might come visit us some day.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, 48 miles to the car. 4 days to go. We haven't been able to get an updated report about the snow. We don't know if it is safe to go across Dick's Pass yet. If not, I hope that we are smart enough to turn around and come back. The climb will be steep, 1000 ft in 1 mile. Right now my body feels pretty good, the feet only hurt when I put on the shoes. I will have to tape up my blisters before will leave tomorrow.

The only bad thing so far about rest and resupply is that the pack gets heavier with the new food. We tried to pare down the extra food and mail it home. One more night in a bed and then it is back out into the wilderness.

TRT Day 5 Hell Day

We woke up at 6am and left our campsite by 7am. It really doesn't take an hour to pack but we lay in bed too long thinking about getting up before actually doing it. This was our earliest morning yet. We knew we had a really bug day and a great reward ahead of us. Thankfully, we had actually camped farther down the trail then we had thought, only 2 miles from the Big Meadows trailhead. We crossed Hwy 89 and continued for another mile or so for BF.

My spirits were way down after BF. I had a bad cliff bar (cookies and cream) and then my stomach just could not handle the oatmeal. My knees had been giving me trouble, even with the help of the hiking poles. The terrain was flat for once, but I just could not get going fast. Grant was somewhat annoyed with me. Frustration, pain, lack of energy caused me to through down my bag, take off my shoes, eat GORP, and start crying. (it is amazing, all these emotions and basically, I was just hungry). It is in these moments that Grant shows how amazing his love is. So patient and giving. He carried my backpack on his front for the next 30 mins on a very flat section of the Pacific Crest Trail (the TRT piggy-backs on the PCT for the west side of the lake)

We crossed many streams/headwaters of the Truckee River. There was no more taking off the shoes for the crossings, there were just so many of them that I just told myself that I was going to get wet and dirty... I would have a shower that night.

We ate lunch at Showers Lake, which really did sound like a shower because of the wind and the snow melt trickling down the rock walls which made a C shape around one side of the lake. This is where the trail started to get tricky...

Snow patches became more frequent. At times, the snow was so thick that we lost the trail. This is when your other senses come into play. Did you notice that there were signs on the trees? Did you notice that there seems to be rectangles carved out of the trees every now and then? Oh look, there, where the log has been cut. Look I see footprints. Plus we had the map and compass. We had steep downhills by a waterfall, a very serious steep snow crossing that ended with a "I just need to hold you, I am so glad that we didn't fall to our death" embrace. Bursts of energy came out of no where that kept us bookin' as fast as we could. We got real good at boot skiing.

As we got closer to the next trailhead, there were several trail crossings and signs that rallied us on. We came up on Echo Summit Trailhead to find a search and rescue squad in full force. They were organizing the troops of volunteers looking for a older mountain biker with some mental problems who had disappeared the previous day or so. We didn't ask anyone anything. We just used the outhouse, sat down on a rock, ate a snack and watched for a few moments. Only 1.5 miles to the Chalet. Can I say it again? Only 1.5 miles to a building where I can sleep in a bed, clean up, and rest for the next 24 hours.

At 8:15pm (after 13 hours on the trail) we landed at Echo Chalet. Showers, Dinner (the best quesadillas ever!), Washing ALL of our clothes, (which meant sleeping naked), Body Massages (and other activities) to Celebrate our HARDEST day on the trail.

TRT Day 4 Lakes and Meadows of Flowers

We got up and out by 8am, climbed up to monument pass and had BF at 9:15. I hate multi-grain mix. It is supposed to be full of great protein. I cannot eat it. It choke down a few bites. I ask Grant to please not make as much. I hate the stuff. We eat it every other day. The other days we eat old fashioned oatmeal. Just as disgusting and intolerable for me. Next trip I will be very clear about bringing my own instant oatmeal!

We arrived at Star Lake at 12:05, right on schedule for a lunch by a lake. Whenever we can pair water filtering with a meal, we gain a little time. The lake was beautiful with Job's Sister in the background.

After lunch we walked to Armstrong Pass, about 5 miles, where Grant tells me that his hope is that we make another 10 miles before bed. It is already 4:30 pm. (quick calculation- we'd been going about 2 miles per hour, so 5 more miles of hiking? We obviously didn't make it)

Today we reached the highest point on the trail, about 10000 feet at Freel Peak. We also walked through some of the prettiest meadows and wildflowers.

I'm tired of being dirty. It has been 5 days since the last shower and real bathroom. I'm tired of my legs and feet hurting. I needed better shoes before the trip. Time ran out for shopping and I thought these would do. I now have a twin blister in the inside of my other heal.

Tomorrow we really have to push it, because tomorrow night we sleep in a bed!

TRT Day 3 More Danger In the Woods? Theory disproved!

We started our morning packing up to leave just to eat BF 10 mins down the trail from our camp. We finally found the overlook that people were talking about on the way up. It had a wooden bench built into an outcropping of rock. This told us that we really hadn't hiked as far as we though we had the day before, probably 16 miles, still a good ways. After the bench, we headed downhill for about 3 miles. Then the path started rolling. We met many mountain bikers on Kingsbury Grade, rumored to be among the best trails in the Tahoe area. Lots of great thin paths with rocks and roots to jump/climb/roll/fall over. After 7 miles we hit the next trailhead and started walking on pavement. It so fitting that we made our two biggest mistakes of the trip while on pavement walking through a subdivision.

Mistake #1
I had asked a guy on a mountain bike how far it was to the trail head. He said 20 minutes. It really turned out to be 40 but it is hard to tell when you're on a bike. He was going the other way. He must have reached his turn around point, came back to his car, and then he stopped by us as we were walking. He asked if he was right on the time. We told him no in a polite way. He then asked us if we wanted a ride to the next trailhead so we could continue on our way. I really really wanted to say yes. The pavement was hurting my feet. But to respect my husband and our mission, I declined. We kept walking down the pavement. We should have said yes, and this is why...

Mistake #2
We walked past a house and a woman came out, called to us and asked if we wanted any water. We happily said yes, Grant was almost out and I was a liter or less. I guess this is something that she does fairly after for TRT hikers. The woman's husband said he was working on a building near the next trailhead (construction) and offered us a ride. Being that the pavement was exposed to the sun, it was afternoon, we were hot and tired, and needed to catch up after not getting as far as we had wanted to yesterday, we said yes. As I tried to get into the truck, the man (dim) let the truck roll backwards. The open truck door pinned my hand between it and the side mirror of the car parked next to it. It hurt. I had all of the symptoms of someone about to faint. Dizziness and needing to lie down. We ended up taking the ride from the woman. Grant was awesome and very patient.

About a mile in from the trailhead we stopped for dinner. It was soma noodles with a sun dried tomatos, spices, and olive oil sauce. It was pretty good. We are finding that we packed slightly too much food. We thought we would be hungrier.

About 3 miles in from the trailhead was the first time we found a flat spot. Everywhere is windy. Even in the valley where we camped. The wind seems to accelerate down the hill and through the trees. We only did 11 miles today (14 if you count driving) Tonight bed is early. Hopefully a bright eastern sunrise will get us off to an early start. I'm finding that mornings are the best time for me to hike. It's still cool and I'm still feeling rested.

TRT Day 2 Getting used to it

Today we tried out part of our new philosophy of backpacking. We hiked before eating breakfast. Energywise this worked great. Timing was thrown off because we didn't end up eating dinner until after 8pm. I was very hunger for dinner but too anxious to eat enough. I guess I'll be hungry in the morning.

The three people that we camped with left before us. We caught up with them twice but didn't get very far ahead because of our breaks. That's another change in philosophy for us. We timed our breaks, about 10-15 mins every hour or so. We took the breaks even when we weren't too tired. When you know that you need to cover 15 miles, you know that you'll be hiking all day, so why be exhausted for the last bit?

We crossed many day hikers climbing up to Snow Valley Peak, so we knew we were getting closer to the next trailhead (Spooner Summit). Sometimes I feel proud to be a backpacker- other times just silly.

We accidentally spent 2 hours at Spooner Lake for lunch. This was our first major water stop. We're entering a part of the trail that we've been warned doesn't have many water sources for the next 20 miles or so (a little over a day away). Together we can carry 7 liters of water. To lose weight, we left the pump part of our water filter at home and opted for gravity. Only bad thing is that gravity is slow, especially for 7 liters. We'll have to finesse this our water techniques as we go, this was way too much time for lunch!

We crossed our first sites of civilization in 36 hours, a four lane highway US-50 (opposite side of the lake from where we entered yesterday). As always, you drop elevation coming into a trailhead and then you immediately gain elevation leaving a trailhead.

As the evening came on, Grant and I, still spooked about mountain lions and bears, same songs together to "scare" away the wildlife. This also made going uphill a little easier. This evening we chose to camp close to the lookout/vista at South Camp Peal. Almost as far as we wanted to go for today.

Tomorrow we look forward to 7 miles of trail, ~5 miles of road in between trail heads, then 3+ more miles of trail. People, cars, stores, hills. The feet are cranky but not in too much pain. My legs are stiff until warmed up a mile in or so. Quite the opposite of Grant who is ready to go once on his feet and then slows down. My shoulder hurt. Good thing we're eating to lighter backpacks.

TRT Day 1 Mt. Rose and Dead Fawn

Today we walked from Mt. Rose campground down hill towards the Tahoe Meadows trail head where we officially started our TRT journey. The meadows were beautiful. Small flowinf streams leading to patches of wildflowers. Just out of the meadows, inside the trees we crossed our first of many snow patches. Navigating with a topo map and compass is getting easier yet I find myself becoming a map snob. Does the map have good colors? Clear elevation marks? Does it have shading? (I especally like shading) We passed by and got passed by a handful of mountain bikers. Today is an even day. Bikes are allowed on this section of trail only on even days. We were going to try to avoid this but the earliest we could drive to Tahoe was yesterday since it was the first day we had a chance to check our mail in about 10 days. Our camp stove, a cute little snow peak giga, was arriving.

About 10 miles in we saw dried up twin lakes, a planned water stop that we knew had the potential to be dried up already. Most of the snow on this side of the lake was already gone, just patches in the more dense tree areas. Upon Grant's request, we hiked up an extra mile to this overlook that actually was amazing to eat dinner. You could see just about all of Lake Tahoe. We also saw a dead fawn in the middle of the trail. It was freshly dead. I actually could not see any markings of how it died. This made us very paranoid about mountain lions. On the drive up, Grant read about them liking to kill their prey and then come back later to eat it. We were quite a site trying to make as much noise as possible as we nervously walked back down off of the overlook and back onto the main trail. Grant took what we hope will be great shots of the lake from Christopher's Loop/Sand Harbour Vista.

We hiked into camp about 8pm, finally was able to get some water from a clean stream, and were greeted by some fellow hikers just doing a three day hike. On the north east side of the lake you're in Nevade State Park so there are specific walk-in campground that you can stay at. We walked in later then we hoped but thankfully already ate dinner and were ready to set up our tent and sleep.

I got the funniest blister on the inside of my heal. My feet and shoulders/neck ache but all else is good. The spirits are back up after the lion and water shortages are over.

TRT Day 0 Traveling up to Tahoe

The drive to the Tahoe area was uneventful. We had no trouble with traffic and the scenery look much different without the piles of snow we had faced last December. Most of the traffic was headed in the other direction, back home after the long 4th of July weekend. We drove in the south route to Lake Tahoe to drop off the resupply package and visit the Desolation wilderness Visitor Center to get our permit. We winded up into the mountains on US50 and drove into Echo Chalet, a resort with little cabins on Echo Lake about 5 miles outside of South Lake Tahoe. We had already packed up our resupply box, full of food for the second half of our trip, the camera battery charger, and a card reader/hard drive to download all of the pictures. The echo chalet has its own post office which the manager made us use to mail ourselves a package that really wouldn't leave its spot in 5 days. It cost over $10 dollars. I wonder if we could have found a spot to hide it in the woods, but then there are those wild animals to worry about. Next stop was the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit trailer. The ranger said there would be much snow through Desolation Wilderness (on the west side of the lake) and that we would need crampons and ice axes to avoid falling off the mountain ridges. We still had a week and we were hopeful that the snow would melt to a passable state by then. We decided to not get the recommended supplies (who wants to carry these things anyways?) and that if we did get back in a week and find that we still needed an ice axe that we would re-evaluate our hiking itinerary which means hitch a ride back to South Lake Tahoe and take a bus back to our car.

After the visit with the ranger, we drove north to Tahoe City, parked the van, hopped onto a bus and went east to Incline City, Nevada where we called for a taxi to take us up to Mt. Rose campground. The taxi dropped us off at the end of a long park road where a sign had been posted "closed for season." The driver said that there was probably just some snow on the ground still and that it was fine to go in. Walking through this abandoned campground was the eeriest feeling. No running water. All the bathroom buildings were locked. No bear boxes. We had been planning on bear boxes because we had too much food to fit in our bear canister. Our site had snow on it but wasn't covered. Camping in a campground has become so easy for us. What a luxury is having a picnic table on our site and a fresh snow melt stream trickling away during the evening to get our water from.

I wasn't prepared to see all of this snow. I guess I always knew that there would be a chance of snow. I am worried about slipping on the snow on the trail. We have our new hiking poles with us, that will help.

Winter Storm Advisory

"We advise you that you need to go enjoy a snow storm in the mountains..." -Grant and Robin's collective consciences on the subject of dealing with 'lack of wintry weather depression'

December 27-30, 2004 *Trip to Lake Tahoe* CA’s escape to real weather

(Sunday) Last week, Grant and I decided to get out of Berkeley for a few days. The mundane weather pattern of the bay area in conjunction with the shortness of the days has almost driven me mad. Except for 2 major rain storms, for the last 2 months, the temperatures have ranged from 50 to 60 and the sky has been clear with less than usual fog in the Golden Gate. The only things that have changed are the sunrise and sunset times. Depressing. It didn’t feel like winter. It didn’t even feel like Christmas was coming. It was weird and wrong and it was causing me emotional distress. When Grant and I told everyone that we were moving to California, most people said, “I bet you’re glad that there won’t be any snow.” My answer was always, “I’m glad that I will not have to drive in it.” However, there was never any total gladness in my thoughts of leaving the state of my youth. I honestly love Michigan. I love being so close to so many fresh water lakes, especially the big ones that start with the word Lake. I love that there are seasons, my favorite being Fall. I love that you have big cities when you want them (Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Traverse City) and quiet retreats not too far away (Kensington Metro Park, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Pictured Rocks, Manistee River Trail). I love that I know all of the major expressways in Lower Peninsula (I grew up near the cross of I-96 and US 23 and then got my first teaching job near the cross of I-69 and I-75). I love that you could drive fast on straight roads through endless farm fields. I love that most Michigan drivers can drive- in any weather condition. I love the look people give me here when they know that they will never be able to point their hand and tell me where they grew up.

Obviously, we did not make plans for a trip back to Michigan or else some of you would be seeing us right now. So what is the next best thing that we found on such short notice? Lake Tahoe. Tucked in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and on the border between California and Nevada is a beautiful lake named Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is frigged right now but it never freezes because the water moves too fast. It doesn’t matter because we are not really here for the lake anyways. We are here for the snow. It is so sad that you have to drive 3 hours and climb 8000 feet from where we live in Berkeley in order to see something that is what winter is all about- and there is tons of it here already and we hear that more is on its way. Not only is it on the ground, but it is on the roads so we get to practice our winter driving skills. We even get to learn a new skill like driving with tire chains on. Snow is on roofs of buildings, it is on cars, and it is on the bottom of our skis because we skied like crazy today. I would say about 80% of the people who visit Lake Tahoe come primarily for the Alpine Skiing. Which means that the “unpopular” Nordic skiing was amazing.

Today (Tuesday) we left our cozy hotel room at 7am and drove to the closest Sno-Park to South Lake Tahoe. (FYI: Sno-Parks are controlled by the California State Parks and are provided for people who do not waste their money on lift tickets but enjoy the finer, more elegant sports of cross-country skiing (nordic and telemark), snow shoeing, and sledding. Oh yeah, those annoying snow mobiles are allowed in some of the parks too. Sno-parks cost $5 per day – visit as many as you can in a day- or $25 for the season which includes staying overnight in your car if you want to. We bought the season pass hoping that we’ll be back at least one more time) You have to do your research before you get to the sno-park because there are few signs and the trails may or may not be marked. These mild inconveniences for the common folk proved to be a great adventure for my curious husband. You see, before we left Berkeley, we went to REI and purchased a couple of topographical maps of the area. (Thank you mom and dad Kinney for the gift certificate) Armed with his maps, compass, and GPS my husband was in 7th heaven today when we traversed the side of a mountain, along a beautiful lake, on a path that had disappeared due to the gusty winds and blowing snow, with the occasional threat of slipping down the mountain into the lake, all on skis. Can you get this kind of adventure from going downhill on a groomed trail at a prissy resort? I think not. You can’t even get this kind of adventure from the resorts that specialize in cross country skiing (which all charge around $20 per day). Today was the most thrilling day on skis that either one of us had ever had. And alas, today is only Tuesday. We still have Wednesday and Thursday to discover more mountains and lakes.

Looking back on our decision, we probably missed the most exciting weather week in Berkeley as there were rainstorms and flooding. Pictures of Berkeley made it to The Weather Channel. Rain is a big deal for people in California. They do not seem to know how to drive in it therefore they crash into other people. Good thing we're not there to witness it.

(Wednesday) Today we slept in slightly longer and got a later start which meant that the roads were more clear than yesterday and that more people were up and about. We stopped first at the National Park Service Headquarters to get some maps and practical information about the trails in the area. A very lovely park ranger gave us some great tips from personal experience and sent us on our way to Carson Pass, a sno-park along highway 88. This park had the deepest snow that we had seen so far. We parked and got our gear together. We always take the typical supplies... duct tape, compass, whistle, GPS, maps, chap stick, water, granola bars, headlamps with extra batteries, etc. I pretty much carry what Grant tells me to take with me. After climbing over a 6 foot wall of snow at the edge of the parking lot, we located a park map on a tree. The map was about 5 feet over our heads. We tried our best to read it but decided to just follow the blue diamonds nailed to the trees as we started our expedition. We'll break up this trip into 3 parts. Keep in mind that today was supposed to be the easy day because we worked so hard yesterday and were sore...

Phase 1: Trail already broken. We followed the path already set before us. Along the way we passed 5 other skiiers returning so we felt pretty good about the path we chose. Then after a downhill, the path turned to the left and the blue diamonds disappeared. At the time, I knew that our plan was to follow the marked path so we turned around to search for the place where the set trail separated from the intended path. Looking back, I probably should have just followed the trail in the snow because it probably would have led back to the start anyways.

Phase 2: The rolling hills of Carson Pass were great. Grant and I had lots of fun skiing in the woods. We backtracked and found the blue diamonds which led us downhill. There was no trail, so we made our own as we let gravity pull us down the hill. At the bottom we found another sign that was nailed pretty high on a tree and decided to loop around towards Woods Lake and then back to the parking lot. The total loop was less than 4 miles total. The trail to the lake was mostly flat with Grant leading the way in breaking trail. At this point, our spirits were still high and the sense of adventure was very strong in Grant. The lake was frozen over but we didn't test its strength. There was nothing too special about the lake.

Phase 3: After all the fun of breaking a trail going downhill, and seeing the river which led to the lake, we realized that we would have to go back up to get to our car. Breaking trail in knee deep snow (it was knee deep on skis and probably close to a foot deeper than than without skis) going up hill proved to be one of the hardest things that I have done while participating in an outdoors sport. We took turns leading eachother and following those faithful blue diamonds. The time sped from 2:30pm when we left the lake to 3:10pm when we were .2 miles farher along the path. The GPS showed that we were getting closer to the highway but were still over a mile away from the parking lot. I wanted to go to the road. Grant dissented, sure that we would get run over because of the weather conditions. It had been steadily snowing the entire time we were skiing. So we tramped on for another .2 miles which took over an hour. By now the sky was getting darker and the road was about 10 feet from us horizontally (about 40 feet vertically). Exhausted, we crawled up the hill, put our headlamps on backwards for the cars behind us, and started skiing on the snow bank created by the snow plows. We did not get hit by any cars but we did get some weird looks from some people as we climbed over the snow bank onto the road. We finally made it back to the car at about 5:30pm- just in time for the snow plow to come and clear a path for us out of the parking lot.

With that adventure behind us, we kept up with our plan of relaxing in the natural hot springs of Grover Hot Springs State Park. The 102 degree pool was great. It was just what we needed. It was especially cool to feel the snow fall as was sat in the toasty outdoor pool.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we head home so I'll finish this adventure when we get back...