High 23, Low 8.

Should be nice, The snow is starting to turn to ice, beware! 

High 21, Low 8. 

Looks like its going to be a sunny, warm, and clear week. This ice is on Trillium, It's pretty incredible, there's much more I wasn't able to get in the frame. That part of the trail hasn't seen sun in a long while. I imagine I'll see more people this weekend up here than I've seen all winter. But, let's not use Porter's creek, or any other bushwhack trails up here. 

Je comprends le francais un peu maintenant.

High 26, Low 6.
5" of New Snow

Yes,yes. Always Hike with Food, Water, Flashlight, and Extra Clothes. Something light like a whistle is a good idea as well. You won't ever find me hiking without these Bare essentials. During the winter I always carry a NPS radio too. Bee stings are definitely known to happen while hiking Leconte. 

There are A Lot of trees downed on the mountain right now, Some of these require taking your backpack and snow shoes off to climb through. 

I had to look up Manchurian Tea, As far as I can tell it's the same as Kombucha, It's the same mushroom culture. Maybe the difference is the use of White Tea instead of Green or Black Tea as in the Kombucha instructions I have? These different names might just be from different parts of the world. I've heard it called Kargasok Tea as well. A cup of this tea in the morning before any food will make your stomach feel very happy. 

High 18, Low 3. 

High 32, Low 7.
6" new snow. 
Still Snowing. 


Seems I never pressed 'publish' on the post I wrote yesterday.. oh well. Got a lot more snow than I was expecting, the forecast predicted less than an inch over night. It was really windy as well, there were something like Snow Tornadoes coming through camp yesterday afternoon, I tried to video it, But all these videos I take don't come out very impressive. I think Trillium was broken, but now it's covered in Snow again. 

High Low.

Nice sunset, still windy, and even less snow, looks like something maybe coming in early tomorrow morning, supposed to be nice today, off on a long hike. 

High 40, Low 28. 
.6" Rain.

More rain, the trail is real messy right now, slush and ice. But I'd imagine that even less of the trail has snow on it now. It's very windy out right now and there's been a fog hanging over the mountain... I've failed to get any decent pictures outside yesterday considering my visibility was about 8ft, So these are 'Scoby's' The mushrooms that are used to make Kombucha. I caught glimpse of myself walking by a mirror yesterday and was surprised how crazed and caretaker-like I appeared. 
I'd say all the trails are very wet, not necessarily rough, but if you are wanting to hike up alum and down boulevard in one day, that'll be a lot of work, and if you were serious about doing it today you should probably be on the trail by now. 
Well, the next book that I'm planning on searching for is "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts, I've been looking for it whenever i'm in town at used book stores, but that's not so often, this is the book i'm planning on hiking with come March. 
S-Benz, not having any real relevance to Sodium Benzoate , is part of a string of names i've been using to identify the creatures I see often up here, all named after different preservatives, ("Is he saying these animals are like his personal preservatives?" "no, thats crazy.") maybe someday y'all will meet Xanthamonius or Monosodium Glutamanus.
 I believe S-Benz is a Crow, what I've known of Ravens is that they have a much deeper 'croak' than this birds doing, and Ravens are normally huge too, S-Benz is about 14-15in Tall. 
Sun Also Rises is a favorite, I've never read For Whom the Bell Tolls, I'll try to find this one as well. Thanks. 

High 38, Low 18. 
.5" of Snow

Still very icy, now just a light dusting of snow on top of it so you can't see where it's icy. Stayed up late finishing 'A Farewell to Arms' last night. Bottling some more kombucha today. The IPA that was brewed came out really well, one of my most successful homebrews. 
I've got about 1800 miles of trail planned starting march 24th through France and Spain, with plenty of extra time to romp around. The weathers going to be a lot different than it was for me 2010, I was stuck in rain, snow and clouds a lot last year. I've been told to start an email list or something to keep people updated, we'll see. As for now, I've got to plan my europe car wash / bake sale fundraiser. 
All the trails are broken except for trillium, there's still some freezing rain coming throughout today and tonight. I might try to go down trillium tomorrow, we'll see. 

Meet Sodium Benzoate, my raucous, mice eating neighbor. Or,
 S-Benz for short.

High 28, Low 18.

Well, Snow's in the forecast starting tonight. The trail is solid ice, very very slippery, where it's not ice it is a river, like the pictures below. It took 2h 30m down, and 2h 15m back up, I was able to grab lunch with a friend in town before heading back up. And of course I love winter weather, Here at the end of March i'll be starting to hike a trail where i'll be in the sun and burnt for 6 mos straight, i'm enjoying my winter time for now. I've only got about 30 or so more days up here.

High 37, Low 29. 
1.4 " of Rain

Wow, I've never seen it so windy up here, They were predicting 100 Mph Winds up here, I don't know how strong they were but it sure felt like it. I hiked down rainbow and up bullhead Yesterday, I couldn't walk at points on bullhead coming back up yesterday because of the wind, just kneel and wait for it to slow. There were branches and leaves just flying by a 100ft up in the air constantly. It was really nuts, I seen it pick up the sledge hammer set on the porch and move it down the hill towards the spring. The trails are pretty easy to hike right now, a lot of snow has melted, but where there is snow it is really icy and slushy. The boulevard was broken by some guys this past weekend, up here there is 14" of snow on the ground still, you'll still be stepping deep in snow throughout the trail some. But, really it didn't feel much like winter anymore hiking yesterday, bullhead only had snow the last 1.5 mile or so. Sounds like a heck of a storm up north though, honestly, I wish I was seeing some of it up here :) 
Looks like the groundhog isn't going anywhere. 
Yup, I Made it to Barley's the other weekend, It was a lot of fun, Though I didn't take home the prize, It was good being in the presence of some superior beards.