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Past Activity

Gold Lake Snow Park Off-Trail

  • Start date: 02/23/2020

  • Start time: 12:00 AM

  • End date: 02/23/2020

  • End time: 11:59 PM

Description:

We'll go down Abernathy Road to Deer Creek. Then there are beautiful, mostly open woods and meadows SE to the PCT above Midnight Lake. We'll more or less follow the Yoran Lake Trail E and N back to the PCT below Midnight Lake. E.g.

Sample Route: https://caltopo.com/m/SQ7P

We will explore off-trail around Park Off-Trail: Creeks, Meadows and Cliffs. This could provide an interesting alternative to the usual route up to Midnight lake and back on the PCT.

  • Event Leader: Sayre Gordon

  • Assistant Leader: Hartman John

  • Event category: Trips

  • Area Type: Mountain

  • Departure Location: South Eugene High School, 19th & Patterson

  • Rating: Difficult

  • Roundtrip total drive miles: 140

  • Season: 2020

  • Permits Required:

  • Event Status: Passed

  • Supplies and Equipment Required: backcountry skis with sturdy boots, winter clothing, lunch and ten essentials. Climbing skins optional

  • participant prerequisites:

  • Conditions:

  • Total Distance: 10

  • Member Fees: 1

  • Elevation Gain: 1000

  • Non-Member Fees: 5

  • Committee: Trips

  • Junior member fees: —

Trip Report

This trip was planned to explore the Deer Creek trail, which connects the PCT and the Abernethy Road at the point where it ends at a washed-out bridge. John Hartman supplied GPS maps of this trail, and of a new trail that appears to connect the PCT to the Yoran Lake trail and thereby offer a short-cut for hungry PCT thru hikers eager to get to Shelter Cove Resort. We ended up doing the first trail, but not the second. Sunday turned out to be a snowy stormy day in the midst of two weeks of sunny dry weather. Light rain greeted us at Gold Lake snow-park, and changed to snow as we began skiing. Conditions were very good on the packed trails, and slower trail-breaking on our Deer Creek route. At lunch time we tried to say warm, and wondered where the PCT was, although it turned out to be just a couple hundred yards away. On the descent we added a loop past Bechtel shelter and the steep snow-shoe trail behind it. All four skiers managed the challenge, whether on heavy back-country skis or light and skinny old skis. Three backcountry regulars welcomed Michael Myers a new Obsidians member on his first XC ski trip. Hope he can enjoy many more skis with us in the future.

Members & Guests signed-up & waitlisted

  • Number of spots on trip: 8
  • Number of spots available: 4
No. Status Full name Phone Transportation Needed? Trip Fee # Can Take?
1 Signed-Up Sayre, Gordon 541-515-9450 N 1
2 Signed-Up Hartman, John 541-505-9980 N 5
3 Signed-Up Myers, Michael 541-579-4733 N 1
4 Signed-Up Winiarski, Larry 503-380-2235 N 5