Mid Sierra Musings: The Eagle Trail Out Of The Coyote Snow Park 2019

Thursday, January 10, 2019

The Eagle Trail Out Of The Coyote Snow Park 2019

Dale Matson

Click Photographs To Enlarge

Garmin Map of our (Northern) Route

Snow is very important to Eskimos and that is why they have about 50 words to describe snow. Since I only speak English, I would say that we broke trail through more than a foot of snow that was two days old. One might expect powder but there had been a warm day after the snowfall before we got there so there was a 3” crust that made for less than ideal travel.

Here is a 2015 article I posted of the trip to the overlook of Shaver Lake and the Portal Fore-bay above it. https://midsierramusing.blogspot.com/2015/11/coyote-ski-2015.html

Sharon and I had hoped for fresh powder and took our skis. Mike rented snow shoes and because of the crust, had a better go of it. He is younger and broke trail for us much of the way. We went about 3 miles round trip.

I had a lightweight nylon tarp and we laid it down for a snack break after Mike packed a spot with his snowshoes. The sun broke through the trees and it was quite comfortable.

I used my Garmin Fenix 5X Plus watch for the first time on this route and discovered my oxygen blood level to be about 96% at about 7,000’. The Garmin map is a $100.00 24K (West) downloaded to my watch from Garmin “Basecamp”. The resident maps in my watch don’t provide enough detail. The trail to the north is the Eagle Trail out of Coyote. The trail to the South is out of the Tamarack Snow Park where snow machines are allowed. I created a Jpeg of the map with a screen-grab. My version of Basecamp does not allow you to print out the map download from the watch.

Mike, with good balance did not use trekking poles. I was disappointed in a pair I bought from MSR because the two lower shafts turned. This meant that the semi-circle baskets turned and I didn’t always have good purchase on the climbs. I am awaiting a follow-up response from MSR.

We were glad we didn’t bring the dogs who would not have been able to climb though the deep new snow. Maybe we will get to the overlook on our next attempt. This has been a normal Sierra Nevada snow season thus far. My fingers are crossed for the rest of the season.

The drive time from Fresno was longer than the snowshoe/ski time but it was about 2.5 hours of enjoyable exercise and companionship. I’m thankful that I can still do this.