Hi All: I left home about 12:00 and arrived after about three hours. I setup camp at the Big Meadow campground, about 1.6 miles east of 7n09 on Hwy 4, and decided to look for 7n09 and 7n23 to get oriented. I tried to go down 7n09 a ways but the snow stopped me fairly quickly. I went up 7n23 a ways as well until snow stopped me there also. After my initial exploring I decided to get some supplies at the grocery store in Arnold. On the way out of town I stopped at the Snowshoe Brewing Company for a brew and some dinner. I highly recommend the Grizzly Brown Ale.
The next morning I drove to the intersection of 7n09 and Hwy 4 and waited for the others to arrive. After a short nap Dennis, Dennis' son, Loro, Jason, Mike, Chuck, Brad, and Jim arrived. (Hope I got all the names right!) After introductions Jason, Mike, Chuck and Jim left to setup camp. After a short while they returned and the festivities began in earnest. First we went onto the Corral Hollow trail. Initially, snow was intermittent but I somehow still managed to get stuck. A quick pull and we were on our way. Later more significant snow appeared and I could not get onto it so we let the others go first. Once they had gone by, except for Chuck I think, I tried again after airing down some more. Since the others had reduced the slope of the snow I made on the first try. We had lunch at the cabin. Shortly after the cabin the snow became too deep and the trail was lost so we turned around. next we headed toward the Horse Gulch campground. We made it all the way to the campground over intermittent snow. Towards the end the snow became more significant. Some trees were kissed in the process and one didn't appreciate the advances and crunched my fender to show its displeasure. Some strapping was required here and there, and a side pull with a winch was demonstrated by Jason. Thanks to Dennis for providing the demonstration vehicle. The next day we drove some more of 7n09 in spite of lite rain. Overall I think we cleared 4 or 5 logs over the 2 days but we did not shovel any snow.
Saturday, Dennis and son, Brian, John Ruiz and family, CJ and I ran Slick Rock. We started from the Utica Reservoir end and exited via the Alpine Lake end. We all did the steps OK and then on to the river crossing. It was fairly high but not impassible. Unfortunately my electric fan blades all went for a swim and drowned in the process. The blades all broke off at the base and left me with no cooling. Fortunately, John had an extra fan that we rigged onto my ZJ and we were off. Overall it was a very nice, but a little longer than usual run with a little snow at the end to keep us on our toes.
It was a very nice trip, good times had by all, at least by me!
Can't wait for the next run Greg Quintana