The Johnson Creek webcam has been down for almost a week, and Blossom and Einstein were quite perturbed at not getting their daily update on how fast the snow was melting. So, I threw the aforementioned 80 lbs. of survival dog meat and the six burner weber grill into the back seat this afternoon and roared off towards the backcountry.

Meadows Valley was clear of snow (~4000 ft). Long Valley (McCall) was full of snow (~5000 ft). Reed Ranch airstrip looked great, it's ready to visit.

I finally got to JC, and was surprised to see that the snow is all gone off of the airstrip. I think this is a couple of weeks earlier than normal. When I swung around to the north side, I could see the sunlight reflecting off of standing water on the surface, so I didn't try to land. I think it should be good to go in about a week.

Outstanding news been watching the webcam hoping it would update. Hope Einstien is getting better and sure envy you for being able to take the dogs to such pretty places to camp. Plan on coming up in late may early june for a 7 to 10 day stay at JC maybe we will see you up then when Mark, Steve and I get up. Billy

Well, the camera has been down again for the last two weeks. The pooperati have convinced me to go out to JC to see how cold it gets at night. classic.wunderground.com is predicting 19 for Yellow Pine tonight. The sacrifices I make for those damned muttz...

Have fun!

The weather was fantastic. The runway is high and dry and in great shape. The grass is just beginning to sprout, and it's less than two inches tall. I'd post some pics, but Zuperman has the Photo Gallery shut down.

It was 60 degrees yesterday afternoon when I arrived. This morning at 7AM it was 23, and warmed up to about 60 again today. I decided to be a girly man and mitigate the night cold with a catalytic heater, and I think it was about 40 in the tent.

I bought the Coleman Sportcat a few years ago, hoping to use it for winter camping. It's only 1500 BTUs, but is supposed to last for 14 hours per propane bottle. The Blackcat model puts out twice as much heat, but a bottle only lasts 7 hours. I like the slower burn rate, since you only have to carry half as many bottles and the level of heat is less dangerous.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-SportCat-Catalytic-Heater/13228604

Worried about burning down the tent, I brought along a wire mesh basket (slightly taller than the heater) to put over it to keep from flopping the sleeping bag up against it during my one of my thrashing fits. I was using a four-man dome tent, and the tent is probably just over four feet in height. I had the heater near the center, and it didn't get the tent fabric above it hot, just comfortably warm. I liked the basket guard idea, but I think I'm going to make a slightly bigger basket out of chicken wire that should be lighter. I'm pretty happy with the heater, and I think it will encourage me to go airplane camping more often in the late fall.

I had the place to myself yesterday, but a few guys from the State flew in to inspect the strip this morning. I told them the camera hasn't updated in two weeks. Their pilot admitted he looked at it this morning as part of his flight planning and thought it was working, because he didn't remember to check the time stamp. They swore they would get it back up pronto.

It was a huge investment in time and fuel (45 minutes and 5 gals each way), but I'm not complaining!

kevbert wrote:
It was a huge investment in time and fuel (45 minutes and 5 gals each way), but I'm not complaining!

Thanks for taking one for the team

kevbert wrote: I'd post some pics, but Zuperman has the Photo Gallery shut down.

imgur.com is a great free image gallery, and had a really well-designed interface. I recommend using it until the new site is up.

Webcam is still down. Starting to get annoyed!

next time someone is in JC throw a rock at it ... maybe it needs the old Fonzie treatment...