Unknown Pond

3-21-2015 Unknown Pond Hike

Gear:

• Lightheartgear Solo
• Ohm 2.0
• MSR EVO Ascent snowshoes
• Hiking Poles
• Black Diamond Mountaineering Axe
• EMS Mountain Light 15* bag
• MLD Spirit 48 quilt
• Down pants/booties/jacket

Starting temps Saturday around 2pm were up around 40* and sunny. The sun quickly turned into partly sunny with the clouds moving in.

I parked my car at the end of the long fish hatchery road hiking lot and walked to the trail head. Snow was a few inches deep and sloppy because of the high temps. Snowshoes would be worth it. Along the relatively flat trail were all kinds of foot prints presumably from moose and various small critters. I soon realized the significant lack of blazes...anywhere! I thought this trail was more traveled than it shows.

The trail slowly became less visible as the clouds rolled in and the wind started to pick up. I knew I needed to follow the stream all the way to the end and then go up and over the ridge. I'm glad I knew this because the trail was no longer visible. No blazes and no trail markings. Great! I slowly trudged my way up to the ridge while breaking trail in my snowshoes. I continued to check my map more and more as I kept thinking to myself “just a little bit further!” Once I made it to the top I found a really nice opening of land with a decent view into the little valley. I almost stopped to pitch my tent there but was determined to find my destination of Unknown Pond. I made my way through the trees and saw the pond straight ahead. I made it around the waters edge and found the sign posts indicating tent sites, the toilet, and water. 2 hrs and 30 min. from car to camp.

I made my way to a decent spot up the hill and started to pack down the snow by stomping on it with my snowshoes. Once I was satisfied, I opened my pack and started setting up my tent. This was a huge pain in the ass. The polycryo ground sheet was blowing around and the snow was so loose and powdery, I couldn't really get the stakes to bite into anything. With a little bit of ingenuity, I got the tent pitched using snowshoes, my ice axe, and dead tree branches as anchors and stakes. The temps were around freezing and getting colder. The winds were starting to howl. I did not have a view but I did have a pitched tent in the snow that is ready for me to enter and warm up.

I got my sleeping quarters set up, put on my sleeping/warm clothing, and took my boots off. This is when I decided I needed to re-stake some of the guylines. I put my down bootie covers on top of my sleeping socks, zipped open the tent, and stepped out of the tent and into the cold wind and snow. While rummaging around for sticks to use, my left bootie cover slipped right off exposing my warm and dry sleeping sock to the cold and wet snow. I quickly finished up and got back into the tent where I took both socks off and slipped my down booties over my naked feet. This turned out to work fine as my feet stayed warm and did not sweat at all.

Throughout the night I had to hit the tent walls to try to help the snow slide off. After I eventually fell asleep and snow built up and I had a caved in tent in the morning with maybe ½ the usable space inside. That was not ideal but still worked for me as the LightheartGear Solo is massive in interior space. The wind blew very hard and loud gusts throughout the night but I eventually was satisfied that my tent was not going to collapse from the wind. The snow was more of a concern to me at this point.

Partial view in the morning.

Yikes! At least it is still standing.

I made it to morning still warm bundled up in my sleep system. I made some hot oatmeal and checked the thermometer. Reading 6* with a min of -3* for the morning/night. I dreaded packing up and walking out but knew I had to get going early. Once I finally stepped out of the tent I realized I was not going to be able to follow my tracks back out because most of them were snowed in. Must have been at least 8 inches of new snow. I started my trek back to the car at around 6:30am and managed to break trail once again all the way back. I made it to the stream in no time and followed it all the way back out to the car. I saw maybe 4 total blazes the entire time out and back. 1 hr and 30 min back.