Meadow Lake - NOT!

[hemingray]

Tried to get to Meadow from Bowman Lake. FAIL! Both routes are still drifted. Now I'll never know how the lake looks - wanted to see if the pic over in the Miyagi topic was for real.

Main road - about 1/2 mile above Tollhouse Lake. I'm taking the picture atop a huge drift, it just gets worse above here. It's this last bit of steep climb in the trees.



Looking the other way, back towards English Mountain.



Took the other route and got a lot further, but slammed to a stop as soon as the road turned got into the forest - about 3/4 mile short of the intersection above the lake.



Tollhouse Lake



Still, a nice day - very much spring at 7000 feet! Here are some snowflowers.



Lots of blooming on this open slope, but lots of snow on the north side of the ridge.





Moscove Meadow in the Middle Yuba Valley.



Looking north to the Sierra Buttes.



Water, water everywhere up here. It's like this area got more snow than just a few ridges south.



A seasonal pond over near the trail to French Lake.



And, the bigger pond. It has a massive cornice/snow drift. The high spot on the opening above the pond is about 10 feet high.



Bowman Lake is as full as I've ever seen it. The upper area is completely covered.

[GrizzlyGuy]

Holy crap that's a lot of snow! I'm supposed to head out that way in about an hour with the local dirt bike guys. I guess we won't be riding to Jackson Meadows from Meadow Lake as planned. We probably won't even be able to make it out Meadow Lake Road to the lake.

[EigerMike]

great pics dave! really like the snow bank on the lake nice shot,and love those little red things havent seen any this year thanks for sharing!

[hemingray]

Thanks - the snowbank above the lake was very cool to see.

The Snowflowers, a.k.a. Snowplants - Sarcodes Sanguinea - actually are supposed to come up fairly soon after the snow melts. They are related to Heaths (blueberries, cranberries, rhododendrons) but are a parasite and live off of a fungi that lives under the leaf litter. Quite the oddball - but spectacular - plant!

There's more than you wanted to know!

[EigerMike]

Thanks - the snowbank above the lake was very cool to see.

The Snowflowers, a.k.a. Snowplants - Sarcodes Sanguinea - actually are supposed to come up fairly soon after the snow melts. They are related to Heaths (blueberries, cranberries, rhododendrons) but are a parasite and live off of a fungi that lives under the leaf litter. Quite the oddball - but spectacular - plant!

There's more than you wanted to know!

thanks dave i allways would see them up in the gold lake alot but not to much in the high lakes or on the west side mountains. now i know thanks!

[GrizzlyGuy]

Yeah, the snowplants are out late this year. There are lots of them around the house, but we didn't see the first one until just a few weeks ago. Everything is happening late this year - the mosquito population is just now hitting it's peak and they're usually well on their way down by now.

[hemingray]

Two more - meant to post these also. One of Bowman Lake, taken from right alongside Bowman Lake Road at the upper end of the lake.



And, yet another reminder how volcanic the Sierra once was - this is volcanic rock that overflowed out over the granite we are so familiar with.

[camokids]

well i was going to see if i could make it from bowman to meadow lake myself tommorow, but i guess not.
nice pics
gotta love the sierra spring in july

someone from the the sierra trek ran up to meadow lake, via FR 86, and the road is mostly clear with some 1 lane spots and drifts:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 572&type=1

[hemingray]

All I can say is - wow.

For whatever reason, that area got smacked. Some storms can dump excessive amounts in smaller areas, it just seems so in that case.

[Ken]

All I can say is - wow.

For whatever reason, that area got smacked. Some storms can dump excessive amounts in smaller areas, it just seems so in that case.

That's what I think happened.

Friday I tried to head up Signal Peak..obviously not far. Near the top I ran into a 10 foot high..YES...10 foot high SLAB of snow, causing a brutal side hill....HELLO..AUGUST!

[hemingray]

Thinking about it, we didn't get a lot of snow just off I-80 on many of those storms when it seems we should have. Grass Valley and Nevada City got pasted. Could have been those edges are what made Signal and Meadow have so much when south of there along the North Fork and Middle Fork had much less. Oh well.

Miyagi's just weeks away and we're still talking about snow on the routes.

Epic.