Parked along Hwy-20. Climbed up the snow bank (higher than me). Put on snowshoes right away. This is the parking lot, buried in deep snow. ~11am.
The first couple of miles are mostly flat, in the woods. No trail of course. Followed the GPS map, and faint ski tracks. Sometimes traversing steep slope, like it here (to cross a stream right after). An hour later, after crossing Porcupine Creek, we started to gain a bit elevation. Still mostly flat, but started to have some nice views of the Porcupine Creek drainage. At some point, the snow started, and it whirled around. I took out my umbrella, to the utter bemusement of my companions. The snow was short lived. We were able to have lunch in peace.
Going up to Cutthroat Pass looked very steep from afar, but when you are right there, it wasn't that steep (I was only able to glissade down only a small section here the next day). When we reached the pass, the snow was back, and we couldn't see a thing. Here are the 5 of the group. Ma is slower, way behind.
Continued south on the ridge. Mi. decided to set up camp on the 2nd knoll. It was a bit too narrow for a group of size 7 in my opinion, so I continued a bit more to the east, where I saw a flatter area with some larches. Ma. and D followed. 3 of us pitched our tents amoung the small trees, with more spaces around each tent. Thankfully, the snow stopped. It takes longer to prop the campsite in the snow. I also found some more trees down the slope for bathroom purpose.
At ~5pm, I carried my foam pad, stove and food to the other 4 tents on the ridge. Their tents were pitched one next to each other within arm's reach. 3 of them dug nice sitting holes where they sat half under the snow on their pads. Right at the end of my meal, snow came in again, and I went to hide in my tent with my library book. An hour later, I came out for sunset. Too cloudy to the west. Still very good view.
The night was chilly. Ice formed on my tent. My socks were frozen solid. My water bottle didn't freeze. Didn't come out to see stars. The half moon was bright.
5/22, Sunday. Up ~4:30, already bright. Nice sunrise. I walked further south along the ridge in micro-spikes towards Molar Tooth. It's beyond my ability to climb though. A nice short walk. Saw some pawprints.
After the sun rose, I went back in my sleeping bag and read, waiting for the sun to dry my tent.
When I realized that everyone was packed up, it was already 8:30am. Mi planned to hike out at 9am. Oops.
Thankfully, it's so pretty here, and no one was in a hurry.
I quickly packed up my wet tent, and by then, the 4 who campped on the 2nd knoll walked by our site, and walked further south like I did at dawn. Here is a photo of me and Ma waiting for them to return.
I wore spikes down so I could glissade, however not many opportunities. Put on snowshoes when the going got flat. We met a party of 2 skiers, and a partie of 2 snowshoers.
The group went to Mandu for dinner, except S (she needs to be back for her daughter). I waited for them in the backyard reading my book. R dropped me off near downtown REI, so it's just a short walk home. Thus concludes a very beautiful and easy weekend. The only small downside is there's not much to do once you reach the campsite. I was thinking of going up some slope on the north side, but Mi wasn't interested.
