We started the drive up to Tahoe and got there around 11:30 or so and checked into our motel of choice, Motel 6.

December 27th 2013 10:37 AM

We started the drive to Sugar Pine Point State Park, the starting point of our trip. Our plan was to snowshoe to Ludlow Hut. It’s about six miles west of Lake Tahoe on the northeastern edge of Desolation Wilderness. Huts are a good endpoint for a snowshoe trip, they provide some shelter from the wind and show while you sleep at night and have a stove and wood heater so you can make a modest dinner and warm yourself a bit before you go to sleep. This was the actual route we followed.

It was a nice drive up highway 89 or Emerald Bay Road and the weather was cool with a crisp breeze.

We got to Sugar Pine Point State Park around noon. We got to the entrance station and paid the parking fee for the night. We then drove to the camp site area and found some parking near Sites 76-125.

December 27th 2013 11:30 AM

We unloaded the gear and ate a quick breakfast (we had picked up some cheap breakfast burritos from Safeway earlier). While we were eating we were talking to a couple that had just finished cross country skiing and were packing up to head back to their cabin. We asked them if they knew about Ludlow Hut. They said they did and it’s a moderately challenging hut to get to because the trail can get a little difficult to read at certain parts. We would soon understand why.

Along the way we had fun messing around in the snow, it was very powdery in certain areas.

Other areas it was pretty icy and what we thought was powder was actually rock hard ice.

At about the halfway point we took a break. The couple we met earlier were not kidding when they said the route would be a little difficult to find. There were thickets of fallen trees we had to step over in our snowshoes and patches of thorny bushes we had to wrestle our way through.

The most difficult part was when we had to cross the creek that was flowing through the middle of the valley. We found the most narrow part which was about 4–5 ft across. It was fairly frozen over but you could still hear the water flowing underneath you and the ice would start cracking in certain areas. I kept thinking if my shoes get submerged…gg.

We deviated from the trail some more and had to backtrack a few more times but finally we saw a sign for Richardson lake. Ludlow Hut is right by Richardson lake and at this point we were about a mile away.

The last mile was probably the hardest mile. It was getting hard to see and we had to put on our headlamps. We also got completely off trail and had to go through a giant thicket of trees and had branches smacking us left and right. I was pretty tired at this point and the cold and darkness didn't help.

December 27th 2013 7:30 PM

Finally we broke through the trees and we found a wide trail made by a snowplow. We figured we must be super close to the Richardson Lake now and surely we were. Now the only thing we needed to do was find hut and we could start a fire, make some food and get some much needed sleep…

Nope

The problem was when Quincy pulled out his GPS it said we were already right next to the hut. We looked around and we couldn't see anything. We searched all around the shore of Richardson Lake but we couldn't see Ludlow Hut’s signature ‘A’ frame. At this point the two of us were very confused, tired, hungry and running low on GPS battery.

We had to make a decision on what to do because we couldn't keep wasting our GPS battery or else we wouldn't be able to make it back to the car in the morning.

So we took the only option that was available to us.

We decided to camp out in the snow for the night.

December 27th 2013 8:00 PM

Once we accepted that we were sleeping outside we wasted no time in setting up our camp.

First things first we made a fire to keep us warm so we could cook dinner.

Making the fire wasn’t easy. We first had to clear out a bunch of the snow until we could reach the soft ground. Then we looked around for some dry wood; dry wood is the best option, wood from a live tree takes more effort to burn. We looked around a bit but we were only finding small twigs and such. Then we found an old tree stump that was nice and dry. It was super brittle because it had been eaten up by a bunch of termites, you could see tons of small holes in the wood. This was an added bonus because it allowed air to circulate better through the wood.

We brought as much wood as we could carry back to the camp site and piled it up on the dirt patch we dug up. Quincy then had the smart idea of getting some dry pine needles from a nearby tree and putting it on top of the wood. Pro Tip: Dry pine needles light up spontaneously, pine needle leaves have a lot of oil on them. Quincy got some matches from his pack and lit the pine needles and started blowing on the pile of wood. It started to light slowly and pretty soon we had a nice roaring fire.

Next up was getting some water to use for our mountain houses and have on hand for general purpose drinking. We walked over to Richardson lake thinking we could just grab some water in some cups and bring back to the camp site.

Nope.

When we walked over to the edge of the lake we bent down and saw that the whole lake surface was frozen over. We couldn't get to any of the water. Fail.

So we tried the next best thing: melting snow. We got out our MSR cooking pots and stuffed them with the cleanest snow we could find. We then placed them on the edge of our fire so the heat would slowly melt the snow in our pots. We also had portable propane stoves but we did not want to waste our propane on melting snow. That’s a common mistake a lot of people make.

In a few minutes the snow had melted enough and we started to filter it. The snow-water had a bunch of little twigs in it along with a bunch of ash and soot from the fire. Quincy used his MSR filter and we piped the clean water into water bottles. Once we had enough clean water we started boiling it with our portable propane stoves, away from the soot and smoke our fire was giving off.

Once the water boiled enough we poured it into our mountain house bags. Finally after about an hour and a half of work, making the fire and melting snow for water, we could eat. The first bite of my chicken and rice mountain house tasted amazing, like a 3 star Michelin Dish. I pretty much inhaled mine I was so hungry.

Once we finished eating we melted more snow and filtered it so we could have some more drinking water for our return trip in the morning. We filtered enough to fill two water bottles and my 2 liter camel pack.

Next was the part I was most looking forward to. Sleep.

Quincy and I both had subzero sleeping bags and emergency bivy sack lining for our sleeping bags. The bivy sacks kept our sleeping bags dry since we were going to place them right on top of the snow.

We found a nice spot for our sleeping ground right under a group of trees.

We then proceeded to carefully take off our boots without getting our socks wet and climb right into our sleeping bags.

Right then I had a genius idea. We should take all the bottles of water we had filtered and stuff them in our sleeping bags as well. That way our body heat could keep the water warm and they wouldn't freeze overnight.

So we stuffed them into our sleeping bags, crawled in and passed out immediately. It felt so good.

I didn't get the best sleep that night. It wasn’t for lack of warmth though. I was quite warm in my sleeping bag. Subzero sleeping bags work wonders in terms of retaining heat. Mine gets so warm that I usually start sweating a little.

I was more worried if some stray animal was going to come over at night and start eating us. To an animal we looked like 2 orange burritos on the ground. So, I kept waking up every hour or two to make sure I still had all my appendages and such.

December 28th 2013 5:00 AM

After going in and out if sleep I woke up very suddenly right before sunrise. My back was super cold and I was wondering what the heck was going on. I've never felt cold inside my sleeping bag before. I felt around and I felt the bottom of my sleeping bag; it was wet.

OH SH*T…my camel pack started leaking inside my sleeping bag at night. My bright idea of keeping our drinking water inside our sleeping bags had backfired on me a bit. I hadn't sealed my camel pack all the way shut and now I had a wet sleeping bag…damn.

I chucked the camel pack out of the sleeping bag, at this point I didn't care if it froze. Apart from that there wasn't much else I could do. My jacket and pants were waterproof to a certain extent so I got another hour or so of sleep in before the cold and wet finally got to me. But by then it was right around the crack of dawn so I decided to get up anyways.

I also noticed that my sleeping bag and Quincy’s had migrated a bit and I was very close to getting pushed into a very spiky wood log (you can see in the top right of the image below).

I wiggled out of my sleeping bag, put on my boots and I started to walk around to take photos and find some dried wood for another fire so we could get warm before we headed off.

I found enough wood and some more dried pine needles and got a fire going. The sun had come out by now and we could finally see what our camp area really looked like.

We ate a simple breakfast, just some nuts and granola bars and started packing up our gear. I melted my frozen camel pack by the fire before putting it back into my backpack and Quincy defrosted his gloves by the fire.

We finished packing, put out our fire, covered it with snow and stomped it out to make sure it was really out. Then we strapped on our packs and started to walk back to the trail.

December 28th 2013 10:00 AM

On our way back I noticed something odd, there was a wooden ladder that I couldn't see the night before. I saw that it was heading up to an outpost. “Why was this ladder here?” I thought to myself. I pointed it out to Quincy and he said we should go check it out. So we walked over to the ladder and then all of a sudden I saw Ludlow Hut about 5 meters away. The sides of the hut were covered in snow but I could see it’s signature ‘A’ frame. It was only about 75 meters from our camp site!

Oh man, we searched all around last night but we didn't search the one spot where it was. The GPS coordinates we got for the hut were off. There was no one else in the hut which is why it was even harder to find.

The hut had a very interesting entrance. You had to climb a ladder to the top door, go inside and then unlock the bottom door. I guess this prevents animals and such from getting inside through the bottom door.

We hung around the hut for a few minutes but didn’t want to waste any more time so we got back on the trail.

Now that we were descending into the valley we had a much better view of the trail and I figured out an easier path than the one we took up the valley.

Since the path was easier we actually had some time to rest and enjoy the view. The sky was so clear and the snow covered landscape was beautiful.

December 28th 2013 3:00 PM

The route back was much faster; Going downhill always is and we were smarter about the path we took.

We were finally back at Sugar Pine Point State Park. We saw a bunch of people in the park, lots of families taking their kids out on a day hike or just walking with their dogs.

We stopped at a bench in the park and took off our snowshoes. At this point we were walking on paved trail and didn’t need them anymore.

Now we just needed to walk the final mile to get to our car.

We got a little lost in the parking lots but we finally found the car. Thank goodness, it was over.

We unloaded and changed into some fresh clothes we had left in the car.

We started up the car and were about to drive out of the park and get some food when I noticed a small card on my window…

“Ah crap”, I thought we didn't specify that we were staying overnight when we paid for parking the other day. I hope they hadn't sent out the rescue patrol yet…

I tried to call but I didn't have any reception. I figured once we got back to downtown South Lake Tahoe we would have reception and could give them a call.

We drove back to South Lake Tahoe and found a Subway to eat at. I normally don’t like Subway but I really needed a lot of food.

We ate and I called dispatch and straightened things out with them. They hadn't sent out the back country patrol to look for us. However, the ranger I was talking to said he always looks for an excuse to take the rescue snowmobiles out for a spin so it was no big deal…haha.

December 28th 2013 4:30 PM

We started the drive back to South Bay. What an adventure! We were tired and sore but thankful we survived!

Summary

Overall, it was a great trip and I’m glad I did it with Quincy. When times got tough we both kept level heads and were able to make the right decisions. If I were given the choice to do the exact same trip again, I would.

Having the right gear was absolutely essential. We always pack for the worst case scenario: sleeping out in the woods.

I used my gear more aggressively on this trip than any other trip. EVERYTHING was covered in soot.

I didn't do any more snowshoeing trips the rest of the 2013–2014 season, I think I filled my quota with the Ludlow Hut trip ☺

But, I’m looking forward to the 2014–2015 winter season and the adventures it has in store!

End