Road to the Tevis Cup Post #28: Riding up to the snow!

Last Monday (January 25) it snowed here for the first time in decades. We are a bit low for snow, at around 800 feet. It does snow in the foothills where I ride all the time; the closest named peak reaches 3,261 feet. By Tuesday morning, we no longer had snow on our property, and it melted slowly off the hills. By the time I was done with work and could ride, around one, the snow was gone up to around 2,500 feet. But that didn’t stop me! Riding up to the snow had been my goal from the moment I got up to feed the horses.

Riding up to the snow: the goal is the peak between her ears. — I decided to ride up to the snow when I fed Tuesday morning. My goal was the peak you can see between Fantazia’s ears.

This post is going to be mainly pictures of our ride up to the snow. It’s a trail we have taken many times. The first time we followed the exact same path was also beautiful, and eerie: Riding through the fog. I had planned to go all the way up to the peak, but the footing became very slippery around 2,600 feet, so we headed home at that point. It was still an amazingly beautiful ride. It’s not every day you can ride four miles and reach snow.

The beginning of the ride

Riding up to the snow meant a lot of snowless riding, but it was really neat to see where we were going delineated in white.

The views of the San Joaquin Valley were spectacular:

Looking southwest towards Lake Success and the San Joaquin Valley. At this point we began to see patches of snow.

Reaching the snow

We rode up the south side of the hills, so the snow began in patches in the shade. Because cattle regularly use the dirt roads, these were free of snow until we got to the top of the ridge.

I took several videos while we walked along the ridge. The best overall is probably the one below, though it doesn’t capture the magic.

Fantazia wasn’t too sure about stepping in the snow at first… and then she didn’t like marks in the white.

Heading home

The air was cold and the ground wet and slick as we neared the peak, so we headed home sooner than we usually do. Because the way we came is steep (it’s almost a mile shorter), we went the long way. It was more shaded and therefore wetter and muddier (along the road) more snowy (where no cattle had trod) too.

We saw the usual herd of feral pigs on the way down the hill. See if you can spot them in the (admittedly poor quality) video below.

Just a few more pictures below…