Trip Report
Basic Snowshoe - Copper Creek Hut
Copper Creek Hut is reached via a gentle uphill thru a lovely forest on now disused logging roads. No exposure to avalanche terrain; so, good choice when risky elsewhere.
Roseanne Lorenzana
- Thu, Dec 26, 2024
- Basic Snowshoe - Copper Creek Hut
- Copper Creek Hut
- Snowshoeing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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- Road to FR92 Upper Sno-Park is rough with some shallow potholes. About 6 miles from SR706 to the Upper Sno-Park. Vault toilet at lower sno-park was open, clean & stocked. No toilet at upper sno-park. Room for 12 or more vehicles in the upper sno-park.
- Ashford County Park is a good place to leave extra vehicles. PortaPotty available there.
- Directions from MTTA webpage are better than WTA or others - https://skimtta.org/weather-maps-directions/
- On the trail, there are more branching roads than shown on Gaia or CalTopo. So it's best to have a digital or print map for the route.
- Note that no boots allowed in the hut; so, bring alternate indoor footwear.
Weather forecasts were ambiguous with regard to snow versus rain for this area. Hence, the once full roster diminished to just the 3 of us. An MTTA ski patrol person told me this route is both protected from high winds that would otherwise be buffeting Paradise, as well as having no avalanche terrain exposure. These both turned out to be accurate. We experienced no wind.
It was raining at the sno-park, as well as the 1st mile of the trail. But, HURRAH, after the 1st mile we donned our snowshoes and headed into the winter wonderland. In the open, snow was at least a couple feet deep, if not more. Under a complete tree canopy over the trail, snow depth was a few inches. Being heavy with moisture, trail breaking thru the wet snow kept us warm.
Besides the MTTA ski patrol person and their guest, we were the only visitors at lunchtime at the hut. Unfortunately the propane heating stove was malfunctioning; so, no heat. We boiled water on the stove for hot drinks. Absent the toasty heat, we didn't linger as long as hoped for. On our way back down, we encountered another MTTA ski patrol person on their way to repair the stove, who told us that the cook stove's oven could be used for heating when the other stove wasn't working. Oh well, this news came too late for us.
The plan was to join the next day's Mountaineers snowshoe at Paradise. But shortly after we returned to Ashford from Copper Creek Hut, the NPS announced that high winds and heavy snowfall meant the Longmire gate was not going to open the following morning. So, a 2nd HURRAH for us to have had the joy of fresh snowfall while other areas were inaccessible. A great trip.