In the past Joyce, Sue Ann, and Bill had skied to Rocky Point. Today we weren't sure if we would ski just to Rocky Point or all the way to McGee Meadow. It depended on the snow condition. It was so quick to reach the turn off to Rocky Point that we decided to ski to McGee Meadow even if the ski conditions were less than ideal. The weather was perfect and it was great being outdoors.
Trail Description for McGee Meadow Loop:
11.5 miles round trip
Begin at the road closure gate just beyond the McDonald Creek Bridge on the Camas Road.
Take the right fork of the road at the closure and ski past the houses until the road turns to a trail.
The trail soon joins the road to Fish Creek Campground and the Inside North Fork Road.
Bear left past the campground. The Inside North Fork Road soon turns to a narrow climbing gravel road.
From this point it is 3 miles to the first meadow. Continue over the crest of the hill to an orange marker identifying the side trail to McGee Meadow.
Ski along the northern edge of the meadow until you see the opening for the car pullout to the west, on the Camas Road.
After a couple of short uphill sections, the route descends to the road closure.
This trip can be done in either direction, but going up the Camas Road is more strenuous.
We got going at 10 am. Joyce had a grandson's basketball game she wanted to attend at 4:15 pm.
It was foggy when Joyce picked me up. It looked to be an inversion day. Sue Ann wasn't too enthused at skiing as she didn't care for the weather. I believe we made the right decision as while it was cloudy all day, it wasn't too foggy in the Park. That night I heard on the news that a number of airline flights had been delayed during the day due to the thick fog in the Valley from the inversion.
After a cold morning it felt warmer in the Park. Probably because the Park was not in the inversion. Most of the time we were plenty warm skiing, especially going uphill. At times I was covered in sweat. I must not be doing the "layering" thing correctly.
Since Sue Ann had mentioned it on our last ski trip I wore the coat she had given me a year or so ago. That made her happy. The coat only unzips part way and I had to pull it over my head to get it on and off. Because my camera is a large size I normally hang it around my neck and tuck it inside my coat. I unsnap a few coat buttons to get the camera out for photos. With Sue Ann's coat I couldn't do that. I was warm enough during our skiing to leave the coat unzipped and I would pull the camera up and out of the coat for photos. Sometimes it was a pain as I had trouble finding the camera strap with my gloved hands. Joyce commented that I looked pregnant with the camera in my coat. Thanks Joyce. Just what I wanted to hear.
At the start, at the road closure on the Camas road, off to the right we saw a short road and a parking lot. Joyce drove there and parked next to a lone pickup. The pickup was for construction workers removing a metal roof from a private cabin along the trail. Next to the cabin was a fork lift to load shingles on roofs. With snow banks all around it appeared the lift was driven in to the work site before the snow fell. One man was operating the lift and the other stood on the lift and worked at removing the metal roof as the roof had a steep pitch. Half the metal was already off the roof. In the quiet morning in the park the sound of the lift running seemed out of place.
The trail ran along a half dozen cabins, or roads to cabins set back in the trees with only a person's last name indicting who's cabin was down the road. The trail went up and down slightly and was a little icy which sometimes made the downhill sections a bit tricky. We all fell at least once. Sue Ann was not happy about falling.
Then we went along Lake McDonald and saw pretty views. Down below, along the lake, Joyce and I saw two deer.
At the Fish Creek campground we went left and on the inside north fork road. Up, up, up on a narrow winding road. The snow was icy and at times I had to put effort into skiing forward. When I stopped for photos I had to take care not to start slipping back downhill.
We skied through the area of the Robert Fire from 2003.
I had printed the map shown above and we would occasionally check it or the description so as not to get lost. We had a side trail to catch and no guarantee it would be marked.
The road was on the south side of mountains - the north side of a valley. The Camas road on the south side of the valley could not be seen but we felt it must be on the higher ridge to the south.
Eventually we stopped to eat lunch. Sue Ann wanted to go until we found a log to sit on but that was not happening. Joyce and I were hungry and we saw no potentials for sitting logs along the road.
I ate a banana and casually tossed the peel over the side. It slid and slid on top of the snow down the mountainside. It was amazing to watch. The same happened with Joyce's orange peel. Note to self: don't slip over the side or lose my ski over the side.
When we started out after our short lunch we were delighted to find the snow was now soft and good for skiing.
We came to McGee Meadow from the east and we curved north around it. We kept on skiing and watched for an orange marker and signs of the side trail to the meadow. We weren't the only other skier who had done this as all along the inside north fork road there were a pair of old tracks.
Eventually I spotted an opening in the trees to the left that could be a trail. I noticed the tracks continued down the road and also went on this 'trail'. From the way the tracks curved from the road to the trail it appeared the other skiers had gone down the road and came back to this trail. At least that is what I had hoped as I am not an expert tracker.
Down the trail we went with me in the lead. The trail was narrow and twisty and we had to constantly change course. The trail went up and down and over a few snow piles. At one point I took my skis off as I didn't trust going down a longish section that curved at the bottom. I had fears of going too fast and crashing into a tree.
As soon as I took off my right ski it slid down the trail. *sigh* When I took off my left ski it went off the side of the trail and down the ski. *argh!* What is wrong with me?! You'd think I'd learn after my right ski took off! I had to walk down the hill to retrieve my ski where it had finally stopped when snagged by a tree. I found without skis that I sank into the snow as I walked. Imagine that?!
Joyce and Sue Ann had skied on by while I retrieved my right ski. Somehow I caught up to them and again was in the lead.
My next challenge (Yes, I am challenged.
) was getting over a large pile of snow and around a fallen tree and navigating a short downhill stretch beyond that. The slippery snow made it difficult to go up onto the snow pile and several times my skis and legs slipped backwards and my body forwards and down. One time I sank my ski poles into the snow up to their handles. Try getting up after that! Joyce and Sue Ann were having problems of their own with falling elsewhere. Eventually with a lot of effort and laughter we got through this area and on our way.Where the trail came out to the meadow was on a steep downhill part. I decided to take my skis off again. Ya, I know I am a wimp. But a wimp without a broken bone or concussion from crashing into a tree. Joyce told me to watch her how to sidestep down the slope and then promptly fell. Yup. Taking my skis off was the right choice. By the way, Joyce is not going to live that down.
Once we reached the meadow we saw small orange markers attached high on several tree trunks. Help to those looking for the trail from the meadow and not us.
Now the question was, where do we go? Where is the trail? The description had said to "Ski along the northern edge of the meadow until you see the opening for the car pullout to the west, on the Camas Road." But I thought we had come out of the north and the meadow went south/southeast with trees to the west. *shrug*
We continued to follow the ski tracks. They appeared to be confused like us as I saw where they investigated openings in the trees to the west. Eventually I said we should ski along the meadow to the south. Sue Ann was concerned we would have to turn around and ski back the way we came and she did not want to do that.
Where do we go?
After a short while I spied what appeared to be an opening to the south. Yup, at the top of a short hill was the Camas Road and a pullout for parking. I climbed up the hill sideways to avoid taking my skis off. I'm not always a wimp.
The Camas road seemed to be twice as wide as the inside north fork road. In addition to the pair of ski tracks we had been following we saw another pair of ski tracks. And moose tracks where it had sunk deep into the snow. At least these tracks didn't interfere with our skiing like the previous time on the Sun Road. We also saw mountain lion tracks. These did not sink into the snow.
After a long shallow uphill the road went downhill. At first it wasn't too bad but over time I began to pickup speed.
Umm... again, how do I slow down? Snowplow? Nope. Not working for me!
Hang on!!!
The old ski tracks sometimes were good to follow and other times were annoying. After flying up a small bump I decided to sit down/crash to stop as all my other efforts to slow down were not working. I was well ahead of Joyce and Sue Ann.
After my 'stop' I discovered my right ski had come off and before I could grab the ski, it continued slowly down the road staying in an old ski track. *sigh* Hopping along on one ski I tried to catch up with my other ski but I only could go as fast as my other ski - which continued its slow journey down the road.
Stop!
...please.
Sue Ann caught up to me and then went after my ski. My ski stopped just before Sue Ann reached it. I found that my shoe's sole had broke and the front part up to the ball of my foot had come off the shoe and stayed in the ski binding. As I fiddled with the ski I dropped it and it then went sliding down the hill again. *sigh*
After I caught up to my ski again after a few minutes Sue Ann suggested I tie my shoe to the ski. I had no rope or shoelaces but Sue Ann had the idea of using one of my coat's drawstrings. I found they were sewn into the coat. Just my luck to have a quality coat and not a cheap crappy one. Finally I tore out a short string from the bottom of the coat.
I found that my way of tieing my shoe to the ski was not good. The lace went under the ski and that created a drag on the ski throwing me off balance. After I untied my shoe from the ski I got the idea of removing the broken sole from the ski binding and clipping my shoe front into it. This compressed my toes but held my shoe. I skied the remaining few miles this way down the hill. The odd thing when it was all over was that the toes on my left foot were sore from being rubbed and my right foot's toes were ok.
I also found when I started up after my crash that the snow had changed back from soft to icy. Why the upper part had soft snow and the lower part was icy was odd. At least the road was wide so I had plenty of room to go without crashing into a tree. I just had to be careful on the sections with no trees and a drop off into the valley below.
To the left (north) of the road was the valley with the inside north fork road on the other side. I could not see the road we had skied up.
I reached the road closure gate well before Joyce and Sue Ann. They were tired from the effort to ski down and not crash. It was after 3 pm so we had been skiing five hours. Apparently for the distance covered we are not fast skiers.
Here is a view of Lake McDonald from Apgar taken before we left. The cleared area is the boat ramp. I wonder how much action that gets during the winter?!
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