Enjoying the warm fire and so looking forward to our next camp where we'll rest for two days and just enjoy our surroundings. There's not a cloud in the sky, and although they showed a 30% chance of precipitation for tomorrow, I figured it would be an insignificant amount at best. Unfortunately, this is where the fun ended and our thoughts turned to safety. At about 3am, having drunk way too much tea celebrating my birthday, I got up to water a local tree. The skies were still clear and things looked good, but by 5am, that had changed, and snow was accumulating on our tent. The telltale sound of snow scraping down the tent walls woke me up. We stayed inside until sunrise and allowed the outside temperatures to rise with it. I got out of the tent and built a fire.

Remember, I carry no stove. No fire, no hot food. Years of practice allows us to build fires under pretty crazy conditions. Once a fire is built it must be nursed along for a while until it is so hot that, the falling snow does not put it out. We had a hot breakfast with an ample amount of hot chocolate and discussed our options. By now there was a good 4 inches on the ground and it was coming down in steady fashion. The problem we faced was our weather forecast was now 5 days old. If the forecast was unchanged, we could expect the snow to end soon and have sun the rest of the trip. However, with no signs of it letting up, I wasn't willing to bet our lives on an old weather forecast being correct. I told Andra if the forecast had changed and the storm was worse than originally forecast, we could lose the trail and expend inordinate amounts of energy forging our own. Worse, Donahue pass could become impassable. There was just no way to know if the snow was going to stop or continue for a few days.

At this point we were about 2 miles from HWY 120. I suggested we hike back to the highway and if it wasn't closed, hitchhike our way out to Lee Vining. I say if it wasn't closed because HWY 120 does not stay open in the winter. Once significant snow falls, it is closed until spring. If the road was closed, I figured we could camp near the road and then walk the road out over Tioga Pass which is 1000ft lower than Donahue pass (it maxes out at only 9995 ft). After discussing our situation we were all in agreement to abort. Andra went into the tent and I handed her all of our gear so she could pack our packs and keep things as dry as possible. When done we put on our ponchos and headed back to HWY 120. By now there was close to six inches of snow on the ground and the trail vanished below the white powder. Using cut logs and changes in snow shape and depth, I navigated us along the buried trail to the highway. As I had feared, the highway had been closed. Once on the highway, we hiked over to some buildings used by the park workers and found a forest ranger packing his truck. I inquired about the weather forecast and he stated that the last report was still for only one day, but he said they expected 5 inches total and we were already over 6 with more falling from the skies. He pointed us down the road (opposite the direction to Lee Vining) to the Tuolumne campground where we could setup for the night. However, setting up camp while it was snowing was not high on my list of things to do. I wanted to wait out the storm under a building eve and set camp after the snow stopped. Knowing the permit issuing building had a decent size porch we headed that way to wait things out. The ranger said he'd come by later to check on how we were doing.

We hung out on the porch for a few hours as the snow continued to fall and true to his word, two rangers came to visit us while we waited. They wanted to know if we knew the park was closed due to the government shutdown and I couldn't help but ask - they closed the national forest? Clearly the government has become so big and so powerful, they have no regard for the term "public land." They forget they are the custodians - janitors if you will - of the public's land. They are not the owner, but I digress.

As the snow started to slow down, Dave walked down to the campground to check it out while we stayed on the porch with all our gear. When he returned we decided to take the break in the snow fall and setup camp.

To keep the fire going we had to cut a great deal of wood in advance and line the fire ring with it so that it would dry before needing it. This process continued all evening.