Cave Springs Resort - Dunsmuir and Mt Shasta Vacation Rentals, Vacation Cabins and Resort

It is just rumor, but my friend Jeremy P. told me that my friend Wayne G. took off his snow tires this weekend. So what? So Wayne worked for Caltrans since I5 was the Oregon Trail. If he thinks he won’t need snow tires, winter is over. Might as well. Can’t skate. Cause you missed the Luau!

The Siskiyou Ice Rink in Mt Shasta closed the season with tropical party last Saturday. Hawaiian attire got you free skate rentals and there were games, door prizes, bonfire, and fun for all. I’ll try to give everyone more notice next year, because most folk don’t even know there is an ice skating rink here.

That party is over, but skiing is outrageous. The big party for Prep ski racers is about to begin.

“ Next up is what amounts to the Olympics for local high school racers, the California Nevada Interscholastic Federation State Championships beginning March 7, also at the Ski Park.
Mount Shasta High finished the season as North I champions in both boys skiing and girls and boys combined snowboarding. Yreka placed first in girls skiing, combined skiing and girls snowboarding. Etna won the boys snowboarding title. The state races are scheduled to be held on Mt. Shasta March 7 to 11.”

Plenty of snow, lots of competition for Olympic hopefuls, and you won’t need chains. Just ask Wayne.

Every year about this time a few lucky folks at the forest service get to hike up into the mountains around here, actually to a couple of my very favorite summertime lakes, and see: “how deep is the snow?” This information then gets broadcast around the world and somewhere very secret, water managers tell farmers if they will be in business this year or not based on that information. Well, break out the seedlings. We got snow pack this year. Last year, there was 22 inches at Grey Rocks lakes. This year, 134! Average is 80 inches. Around the area it is 143% of normal and water content (there is light snow and there is heavy snow otherwise known as dry or wet snow) is 131% of normal. Read more here:

http://www.mtshastanews.com/news/x1328932649/Surveys-show-early-February-snow-is-deep-and-wet?popular=true

And the lake? When you cross the Bridge Bay bridge, the Island is almost an island already. The lake looks fuller every time you cross the bridge. True even if you just drove into Redding to shop for the day. Fishing is going to be off the hook (you know me, pun intended) this year! More on that later. Right now there is sunshine, ski week, and snow galore. People are really having a great time on the slopes.

Drove back from Mt Shasta last night and appearing in my rear view mirror was a solid white snow covered mountain, framed by a cloudless blue sky, and lit by a brilliant setting sun. After weeks of storms and clouds, seeing Mt Shasta like that reminds one of why we live here. Later that evening the Ski Park posted the news that the power was back on and they are open today. If you check their website, http://skipark.com/report.html , you can see what 12 feet of snow looks like in their web cams. If you check past images, you can see the sun rise on Mt Shasta. The actual www.shastacam.com is still down from the storm. But if you didn’t already know about Shasta cam, you might want to bookmark it anyway. When it is working, it lets you see the weather, sunrise, sunset, etc firsthand with just one click.

          Good Morning skiers and snowboarders!  The powder is deep and the weather almost perfect with light snow and cold air.  The Ski Park opened with over eleven feet of snow at the top!  They groomed trails and grilled hamburgers for the staff; plowed roads and shoveled stairs for the crowds; and uncorked bottles for the Après Ski affectionados (and professionals, but more on that later).   The crowds that have waited a week for this event braved a winter blizzard and potential road closures to be here first thing in the morning to lay those first tracks of the day.  It is perfect!  Except last night the power went out yet again.  Pac Power has to find and fix the problem . . . again.  The Ski Park is closed. 

Today Monday, the Ski Park finally has power.  It is not posted on their web site as I write this, but, at this moment, they are in a meeting to co-ordinate re-opening after being shut down for a week and buried by tons of snow.  The Ski Park was closed for what was arguably the best snow of the season, certainly the deepest powder of the season.  There was nothing they could do about it.  Pacific Power was in charge and Mother Nature overwhelmed the repair crews with thick layers of heavy wet snow.  The result was miles of downed power line caused occasionally by the extra weight of the snow itself, but, mostly caused by broken tree limbs and whole trees toppled on top of the power lines.  Most of Mt Shasta was without power for days and some of the power is still off.   When I started this, McCloud just lost power again.  Dunsmuir was powerless for about four hours last week and then only bothered by the occasional outage which shuts down the computer but turns on the TV and Stereo.  In fact, there really isn’t an unusual amount of snow in Dunsmuir.  However, what is here all came at once so we lost a number of trees, some of which fell into and on top of houses.  But, looking outside even after it snowed lightly all night, it just looks like a normal winter.  And the corollary is; Shasta Lake will be full this Spring!

Mother Nature blessed us with some water  this last week and the Weather Chanel took note.  Pretty good sized storm blessed us with mixed blessings.  Lots of snow in Shasta and very heavy with moisture content.  Great for filling Shasta Lake, but too much of a good thing for some of the power system in Mt Shasta.   They still don’t have full power as I write this!  However,  The Ski Park should be open tomorrow, Saturday, and the Bookstore, etc will all be open too.  Meantime, if you want to see what that kind of snow looks like, click the link below.

Watch Dunsmuir on the Weather Channel!

Fun to watch, but I’m back to the shoveling. :(  and feeding the fish :)

Louie