Lake Kelcema Snowshoe — Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024

Easily drove to the end of the plowed road on Mountain Loop Highway then booted up most of NF-4052. Snow right away from the base of the road. I was surprised to see car tracks all the way up to 3.8 miles from the highway, almost to the top despite the recent deep snowfall. We had a Nissan truck and a Land Cruiser drive by us thru the deep snow (the latter reporting winching his car across the washout section). So we only had to put on snowshoes for the last half mile to the TH at 4.3 miles, way less exertion walking in the tire tracks! No trail was broken to the lake and the snow was way too deep for our dog. Would love to come again another time to make it all the way to the lake, but the road walk / shoe was still beautiful. Not sure how long conditions will last with rain/snow mix in the forecast.