New Year's at Calpine Fire Lookout

Last weekend, we stayed at the Calpine Fire Lookout in the Tahoe National Forest. The forecast called for a major snowstorm, so we geared up for cross-country skiing and winter backpacking (including our tent, in case we got waylaid by the storm hiking in). Sunday morning, we drove to Sierraville and hiked 2 miles in (with 1000 feet of elevation gain), carrying 4 gallons of water (since there is no running water at the tower) and our XC skis (since the ground was pretty clear on the first day).

The forecast was correct – it started snowing the first night and continued for days (which gave us plenty of fresh snow to melt/filter/boil for extra water). We played Scrabble and card games, read, drank hot chocolate, (re)-learned to XC-ski, and ate good camping food. (The place turned out to have a very well-equipped kitchen, minus running water, which augmented our usual backpacking kit.)

On Tuesday, with 2-3 feet of fresh snow (still coming down), we geared up and slogged back down the trail. (The thin XC skis fell right through the snow, so we were basically plowing with our legs the whole way.) We had a great time and would definitely go back.

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