Eldorado Attempt
At the boulderfield
Jan 13, 2024
Friday night we drove up to milepost 15 on Cascade River road before the snow started getting deep. Paul had just driven up that afternoon and only had to saw out one tree, which was surprising after the wind event earlier in the week. We slept at the Mineral Park West campground pullout that night. It was very cold, dropping to 6F.
The route
The next morning we started sledding up at sunrise in the cold and wind. We were able to get over or around all the blowdowns and soon made it to the Eldo Lot. We found a nice tree over the creek a bit up stream of the normal crossing. From there we skinned across an alder field and then postholed up. The snow was deep and progress slow, though I generally kept us on the summer trail.
The park boundary
By late afternoon we reached the boulderfield. Progress was very challenging even in skis, which sunk into numerous slide alder wells. We eventually decided to bail.
We postholed back to the sled and rode out. I sawed out a handful of trees with my little chainsaw, so a return trip in the future might be easier.
On the drive out a 3ft tree had freshly fallen over the road, blocking us in. Luckily I had the bigger 25″ chainsaw, and I sawed through it no problem.
© 2024, egilbert@alum.mit.edu. All rights reserved.
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