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It was a typical mild November pre-winter storm: The visible ceiling was dropping with a cold rain in the valley and light snowfall at higher elevations. In the mountains, the hills were covered with a fresh dusting of snow and along the shores of Silver Lake, ice crystals were forming in the water around the gently swaying marsh grasses while the entire landscape appeared to be bathed in a surreal white glow from what little diffuse sunlight was able to permeate the banks of clouds blowing across the not-so-distant peaks...
The only problem was that it was early June.
Gordon arrived at the parking lot first and I followed within minute or two. After talking it over, we decided that, with the lowering snowline, we might do something both safe and scenic: The boardwalk around Silver Lake seemed like an obvious choice, as it was a well laid-out path that was easy to follow - plus it gave us an excuse to drive all the way up to Brighton to see what things were like. Just as we were about to leave, Ron appeared, agreed that Silver Lake was a good destination, and we all piled into Gordon's car and took off.
It was raining fairly lightly as we drove up the canyon, but by the time we got to the 7000 foot level, the road was very slushy and the snowfall seemed to have increased. Pressing onwards, the road became clear again as we approached the 8000 foot level as it was now too cold for the slush to have formed in the first place, so the road was lightly dusted with the falling snow and in good driving condition.
Arriving at Brighton, we got out of the car, put on our coats, (I'd forgotten a coat, so I wore both a windbreaker and a jacket with a hood) and we set off. Many of the surrounding peaks and ridges were obscured by the low-hanging clouds and it was snowing lightly with occasional, stiff gusts that briefly turned the the snowfall horizontal, shaking loose the winter dusting from the trees, and causing minor drifting.
Between 4 and 6 inches had accumulated on the boardwalk by the time we'd arrived and Ron, leading, broke the trail. While the going wasn't particularly challenging, we reassured ourselves that this was no ordinary walk around the Silver Lake boardwalk as we were burning far more energy than we would have had the way been clear of snow.
Upon getting to the southeastern shore after crossing the boardwalk, we decided to take in some of the scenery - as well as some of the cold air. By this time the clouds had lifted slightly, revealing a little more of the surrounding, white mountains, so we availed ourselves of the opportunity to take a few pictures.
The rest of the trek around the lake was uneventful until, nearly back to the starting point of the loop, I realized that I was now without my GPS receiver, so I simply started around the loop again... About 1/4 of the way along, I found the receiver laying on the trail, under a snow-laden low-hanging tree: Being quite tall, I had to bend over to go under this tree and that was, no doubt, how it had loosed itself from the sternum strap on my daypack. Being that we were already in for a few pennies, we decided to go for the pound and make yet another circuit around the lake.
About halfway around the lake, we were somewhat surprised to run across another party - a fairly athletic young man who seemed not to mind the weather too much with what appeared to be his girlfriend who, wrapped in a blanket or poncho, did not appear to quite as enthusiastic about their outing. Upon passing, he asked "It's June, isn't it?" to which I replied something like "We're in Australia, aren't we?" Considering the calendar date versus the weather conditions, this answer might have appeared to be the most sensible...
About 3/4 of the way around the lake, just about where we re-entered the boardwalk along the northwestern corner of the lake, we ran across yet another couple that seemed to be enjoying the brisk air and wintry respite from last week's high valley temperatures - although I must admit, that I was enjoying it too... Just prior to the end of the boardwalk, we briefly paused for the obligatory group picture before making our way back to the car.
The drive down the canyon was much like the drive up - except it was downhill: Again, the road worsened partway down, but there was little or no precipitation this time, and still-further down, the conditions improved, with only the roadway being wet. One interesting point of comment was the amount of rockfall on the road: We wondered if this was recent, or if the road crews had not been out very recently to clean it up. While there were no really large rocks on the roadway, several were big enough to have likely caused damage to a smaller car (like Gordon's) had they been run over by a tire directly.
Upon arrival in the (still mostly-empty) parking lot at the mouth of the canyon, I asked "Where is Ron's Jeep?" I had no sooner said this than I spotted it - several 10's of feet downhill and to the north of where he had parked it. It had, apparently, either slipped out of gear, or rolled against engine compression, crossing part of the parking lot, the front wheels bumping over a curb, and stopped, with its front end planted over a sagebrush, having nearly knocked over a signpost just to the north the parking lot: Clearly, the Jeep hadn't been going too fast, as the rear wheels hitting the curb seemed to have stopped it. Ron quickly got in (after a brief survey indicated that there was absolutely no vehicle damage) and properly parked it. While Ron was parking, I righted the sign, picked up a large rock from amongst the scrub oak, and planted it against the signpost while Gordon held it upright, quickly obliterating any remaining evidence of the event. It was very fortunate that, not only had the wheels of Ron's Jeep been turned somewhat to the right (so that it veered off in that direction, rather than had continued farther downhill toward the main road) but that the parking lot was pretty much empty so that no cars were present to have (expensively) stopped its rolling. Being that no-one in their right minds were likely to be out hiking, anyway, the entire incident seems to have escaped notice of the sheriff's Canyon Patrol...
After all of this, we wandered over to Rocky Mountain Pizza Company. On this evening, as with most Wednesday nights, there was a local gathering of Bluegrass music enthusiasts jamming away. On this evening, the crowd was particularly large and a smaller group split off into a back room to do their own picking while the larger group played a number of standards and favorites. Ron's wife decided to take the short trip from home and arrived soon after we were seated, bringing along Ron's guitar, with which Ron joined in the group for a few of the numbers.
After eating and visiting with a number of the bluegrass group (some of whom were familiar to us, anyway) we eventually parted company.
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