Are we doing a potluck or are we on our own for lunch?  Lots of snow coming, I can't wait!

I would like to attend if ok with everyone. Would be just me. Should have the doors and windows on tonight.

John

All packed and ready for the morning.

Have fun everyone. I'm sitting this one out.

*** note **** take the first pollock pines exit due to chain control back up then go the back road to meeting place.

Have fun every one. Drive slow be safe and stay warm. I look forward to hearing the stories and seeing some great pictures. 

Gilbert & Betty said
Looks like everyone had fun and there was great snow. I hope all went well and everyone made it home without incident.   

Define without incident? I did a 270 degree spinout about two miles from Jenkinson Lake. I was driving about 22 mph on a relatively flat section of the road that was slightly off camber. I knew the road conditions were more icy there than they were up higher but I didn't think I could spin out on that section of the road. I saw a stock F150 coming towards me about 400 yards ahead of John (black TJ) and me. I decelerated (no braking) to reduce my speed for safety purposes and the rear tires lost traction. I steered into the skid and accelerated to try to regain traction but I continued to spin clockwise. I did a 180. I tapped my breaks and got the vehicle to spin again and ended up finishing at 270 degrees, on the opposite side of the road near the snowbank. The road was off camber with the low side on the oncoming traffic side which is why I ended up on the opposite side of the road. The F150 was stopped about a 150 to 200 hundred yards in front of me by the time I came to a complete stop. I backed up and got back on my side of the road and started back down the road. I rolled down my window and stopped to talk to the young men in F150. The driver said "nice save". He asked me what I was aired down to and I told him 8 psi. He said he wasn't aired down at all. I told him that this section of the road is sh*t but that there is better snow a short distance up the road. Fortunately he wasn't a yahoo and was driving at a safe speed (apparently in retrospect I wasn't!).

I think the problem was that they have been plowing the road and that what little snow was on that section of the road had melted in previous days and turned to ice but was now covered by about 1/4 of fresh snow thereby concealing the icy patches. I radioed to the group behind me and warned them of the conditions and to be careful coming down. A short time later I heard a broken transmission about a 180. I radioed them and it turns out that Jamie did a 180 in the same section of the road. That just goes to show you how bad it was. Fortunately all's well that ends well!

On ice it doesn’t take much, if any slope or speed to cause problems. Brad and poor John hit ice on a very steep slope. I was lucky. Moral of the story is you may think your speed is fine but slow as you go is always the best policy. I felt comfortable at that speed because I had excellent visibility ahead of me. Before that we crawled past several groups that were staged and playing on the road or at the road’s edge. We crawled past them for everyone’s safety. The area at the dam was stop and go because of all the people playing in the snow there.

I had my backend come around on me 3 times on the ride out prior to the lake.  And I was driving slow, luckily each time I didn't hit anything.  There were some icy areas for sure.