Fellow Snowgoers,
Temps in LA were 11deg last night, so I thought I'd try a route that I'd been thinking about for awhile, but had been reluctant to take because of the southern exposures. I parked at the Los Griegos parking area, crossed NM4 and started up the connector to the East Fork Loop trail. Unlike last week, the snow was 3-4" deep, cold, and powdery. And four skiers had broken it. About 10 minutes up the trail, I ran into Angela Welford and Ruth Bargman Romero. They agreed to join me on my exploratory adventure, because they had not consulted spouse Frances, who would have told them about how my "adventures" frequently evolve into full-blown disasters.
The route we followed and elevation profile is shown.
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At the intersection of the connector with East Fork Ridge Trail, we went south across the restoration area that is an open expanse populated by few-year-old pine trees. It's a southern exposure, but the cold temperatures made for a scenic and very skiable powder run among the young pines. We followed a road out to NM4, crossed it and climbed another road that had been used for operations in the Los Griegos area. After a modest climb, we came to the power line where Upper Elk Ridge Trail makes a sharp turn and descends steeply. The powder made for a very mellow descent. There was one large (`!6") tree that the tall person had to circumnavigate while the shorter, more flexible ladies were able to pass under.
When we reached the intersection with Ladera, we turned left (south) and ascended to its intersection with Lower Road. There was a little thrashing around, searching for Ladera, because the recent work there had made some of the terrain less familiar to me. We then had a nice powder descent on Lower Rd. to Black Dog Canyon, and followed that trail back to the Los Griegos parking area.
After the access trail our entire trip was untracked. Black Dog Cyn had a couple obstacles that were easy to get around. By the time we left, the parking area had been plowed. The East Fork area and Los Griegos are described in Sam Beard's book and on the club website under the Trails and Maintenance/Trail Maps tab.
Happy Trails,
Mike Meier
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The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine. J. B. S. Haldane