Backpacking out of the snow-filled Tahoe Basin 3: Day 2, Burnt Area Camp to Round Lake

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Day One, Campsite One: A tour of the location of my campsite on the burnt flat area relative to Big Meadow, the South Upper Truckee's Eastern tributary,  and Meyers down the valley.

After arriving at camp I leave on my pack and snowshoes to better stamp out flats for my sleeping pad and sleeping bag, as well as to compress a bit of space that I can cook and kick back in. If I do not do this, I will endlessly post hole when I take off my snow shoes. When you compress soft snow it tries to refreeze, and if you are lucky it will hold up your weight without snow shoes after a good compression session.

Above: Campsite one in the morning

I'm not putting up a tent, so I also tracked out a path to a nearby tree, where I hung my food to prevent a coyote from snatching it from my side or thrashing my pack at night. I'm not at all worried about bears. Think about it. I'm having a hard time getting through the snow with snow shoes. Bears, though perfectly suited for mountains, are not designed to travel through snow. No bears around here! Yet.

I failed to show making my crap hole at night on the video. Yes, you are welcome. Even though I long ago abandoned shit trowels for snow stakes to dig Summer and Winter crap holes, you had better carve your winter crap holes when you make camp in the evening. Most mornings the snow is too hard to carve a crap hole, even using an aluminum snow stake. I also deploy a "flusher" to aid sanitary dispersal of waste.

This involves a 10 or 12 inch stick broken off from the lower dead branch of a nearby tree. The plan is simple: After crapping in your hole, you submerge the toilet paper in the crap with the stick, then impale you turd  with the stick. You then bury the mess with packed snow, leaving the top of the stick emerging out of the snow.

This has a simple effect: The stick gathers heat from the sun, melting the snow through your crap hole. This acts as a long term "flusher," washing away your turds and paper during the earliest part of the thaw, and on every sunny day. By the time the big thaw happens, your shit is totally dispersed. I have used this technique many times in known locations. Spring reviews of these locations have demonstrated complete dispersal and no indications of my Winter "visits."

Other stick technology: Crossed broken sticks support the burner of my camp stove. The sticks must be long enough to provide support out of the melt zone from the stove.

Morning one in the camp brought a gentle warm-up, as I always feel trashed the first morning. I don't want to get out of the sack, and when I do I want a couple of cups of coffee and hot chocolate before I continue up mountain.

But this slack  time in camp must be carefully considered. Every moment in camp during the early morning wastes valuable cold time, when the snow is still hard from the overnight temp drop. This means that every moment wasted in camp will be paid for by hard travel through soft snow later in the afternoon. It is best to leave as early as possible, to make as much of your daily miles as possible on the morning's hard surfaced snow. This is especially true in Spring, when the snow's surface goes soft very early in the day.

Above: Christmas Valley getting first light from my campsite.

Last Video: The Trailhead to the Burnt Area camp site one

Refs

Trail Guide: Meyers South Upper Truckee trail head. See this page for links to maps, mileages, elevations, and related trail guide pages.

Trail Guide: The Burnt Area.

Interactive Map: Click the Colored Points on the map for the related trail guide pages

Snow Backpacking Videos: Considerations in Preparation for a Spring Snow Backpacking Trip

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