Nebraska Hill

Today was a fun day of hiking in the snow with Tim. We started southwest of Tolland up a long 4-wheel drive road. On the way to the end of the road/trailhead we saw a lot of hunters and wished we had orange vests or hats or something. Our plan was to try to find an old road/trail and hike up Nebraska Hill at 11,500 or so.

Unfortunately, with all the snow (just a ground covering in some places to up to a foot and a half in others) we were not able to find any trail. The day ended up being all off trail and a good practice of our navigation skills.

On the way up, we saw many elk tracks (hence all the hunters) and a snowshoe hare in its white winter clothes. It was very cool! When we got about 500 feet from the summit the weather took a turn for the worse. Most of our morning was under blue, warm, sunny skies. However, at around 11:00 the wind was really starting to blow and we got up high enough to see big clouds forming to the west and coming our way. At 11:20 we made the call to turn around.

Ten minutes later it was really snowy and another 10 minutes down the mountain it started thundering. Yes, that's right, thunder snow! Luckily, we were back in the trees at that time and were somewhat protected. We saw the hare again and then by the time we were back at the car it was sunny and warm again. A very strange weather day, but a fun one nevertheless.