Beaver Ponds with Four Others

A high of 9 today here in Mammoth. Add the wind and it feels like the negatives. I just got done working a breakfast shift and now have to grow a pair to go outside and do something while I freeze my butt off. Stay  tuned for updates on this post.

I ended up snowshoeing with four others. We went on the Beaver Pond Trail that starts by the Old Gardiner Road and made it about 1 1/2 miles before turning around due to the cold. No one died or lost body parts due to cold and I will fully update this tonight with a more detailed story as well as photos. Check back by 8pm Mountain time.

After creating this blog on how cold the day was, I saw a post on Facebook about a snowshoeing adventure to Beaver Ponds. Upon commenting on the post I was told to appear in the map room in the hotel and await for others. While walking to the hotel I saw Kevin and Ted who both joined the excursion.

Kevin, Steve and I talked for some time before Katie appeared. After waiting a half hour we decided to go on without Ted. But behold, Ted was waiting for us at the trail head. We headed up Old Gardiner Road and made it to the top that overlooked Mammoth. See Picture below.

 We hiked for twenty minutes before Ted's shoes broke and we waited for a short time before a quick and easy fix happened. I started to lead the trail for my first snowshoe experience and felt the amount of work it takes to be the first to step in fresh pow pow and make a trail. We lost the trail and created our own and had fun doing so. Below is a picture of Steve while we waited for Ted to fix his shoe.

 About 45 minutes into the hike Katie's face was a tad cold and frost bite was a concern if she continued away from Mammoth. Luckily Ted bought and extra face mask and packed it, allowing her to use, we continued for another 45 minutes. We all took turns taking the lead but Ted was the main leader. When Steve took the lead, Katie would follow and just glide on top of the trail, but when I followed her, it was like I made my own trail due to my weight. I would post-hole after post-hole no matter what. However, when I would be fourth or fifth in line, post holing was less frequent due to the packed snow.

There were times when I was taking the lead that I could find small drifts with my snow poles. Then, there were times where I would find large/tall drifts when i would step into the snow and have it go past my knee. It was a good learning experience and can say that there will be many snowshoeing adventures in the future. There was one wildlife sighting that Katie spotted out; a Bald Eagle soaring in the constant wind. I didn't want to take my big camera lens, so the only picture I got was a sky with a black dot. I showed it to my roommate and said,

"Hey, you see that black dot? Yeah, that's a bald eagle..."
"Whatever you say MacK," followed by laughing. So for my sake, I figured I would tell about it and not show the picture of a black dot in a blue sky.

Below is a picture of Sepulcher Mountain from a distance on top of a hill minutes before we turned around.

 Below is a picture of the party. From Left to Right, Katie, Steve, Ted and Kevin.

 On our way back, about 20 minutes out, we saw this nice view of Bunsen Peak. To the middle top right of the picture is a rainbow cloud. Unfortunately, my camera died right after this picture so I was unable to adjust settings on my camera to capture it. I apologize for not having a fully charged battery.

Below you will find a video of pictures of the whole adventure. I had my GoPro take a picture every minute. The quality isn't there, so I'll try uploading a different file and see what happens.

What is tomorrows agenda you might ask? How about a Photo Safari Adventure to Canyon and possibly Hayden Valley. Sounds good to me. Hopefully I can wake up to my alarm in time to catch the snow coach in the A.M. 

Until tomorrow. Happy Trails.