Are We Ready For The Winter Of 2023/24?

[HardPack]

Hard to believe the winter of 2023/24 winter is headed down upon us already. The winter of 2022/23 dropped enough snowpack for a massive spring runoff for all us gold seekers. The photos are of a cabin located on the western side of the Sierra Nevada divide. By December of 2022 the season snowfall totals had reached 366 inches.

By April 2023 another 302 inches of snow had fallen for a season total of 668 inches.

We didn't have much time to sniff out the placers this past season with the chainsaw replacing the pan and the metal detector.

And here it is November 2023 already. These old granite boulders where dropped by a glacier that also deposited a few quartz pebbles rounded by some ancient river. Well, ain't no flakes a falling' yet, time to grab the pan and shovel before they freeze to the wall and get to diggin'. Let me how you made out down stream this past season...and don't forget to write. 

[John-Edmonton]

Love that mini-cabin! Very cozy looking.

[Valens Legacy]

I think that I would hate to wake up to that snow covered cabin while I was in it.

You wouldn't be able to get to the firewood just outside the door.

[HardPack]

By the end of January 2023 the snow depth reached within 2 feet from the ridge which is at 16 feet. Periodic rain storms helped keep the snow levels down. The photos are of the south face of the cabin looking north. Three quarters of the porch gets iced over with snow which provides a platform for ice stairs. The covered porch has so far kept the door openable. Just of the left side of the cabin you can make out the remains of an old red fir which created the meadow when it fell. The Paiute traveled through this area then the early westward settlers followed their trails, then the 49ers followed by the mud wagons hauling freight east to the silver mines on the summit. On the ridge to the west is a portion of that original trail along with more of those river worn quartz pebbles. Interesting geology up here with lots of springs and seeps that need panning. 

[HardPack]

The cabin sets in a small basin at 7000 feet with a low glaciated rise to the south. A north to south running ridge is to the west rising to 7700 feet and a canyon to the north leading to a east west running ridge reaching 8200 feet. The drainages from this lateral side canyon flow southeast eventually dropping into a main river to the south to 6000 feet. Over the north ridge system are a couple of large basins with drainages that cascade down a “U” shaped  river canyon to 5000 feet. Above the cabin on the west slope at 7300 feet is a spring, the outflow has formed a small fluvial fan at the base of the ridge. The water continues to flow past the cabin through a small meadow. 

In the background of the cabin you can see a boulder field. These are granitic erratics transported down slope then deposited as a lateral moraine. Well drillers hit granitic bedrock at 100 feet below the top of this glacial moraine.

From what I have read the Central Sierras were capped by massive ice sheets during the Ice Age spanning from 2.5 million to 15,000 years ago (Pleistocene + plus). Canyon glaciers flowed out from these ice sheets down the east and west slope drainages of the Sierras. Prior to the uplift of the Sierras the forming granitic batholiths were 20 to 25 mile below the metamorphic rock formations above. The central west coast was rotated closer to the equator, a more tropic or subtropic environment. As the Sierras were tilted upwards water flowing down slope eroded drainages carrying metamorphic sediments. The higher the Sierras rose, the greater the volume of water captured, the deeper the slope drainages eroded, the larger the sediment loads grew. Volcanic activity to the east of the Sierras periodically covered all this slope erosion with ash layers. Volcanic activity often melted the snowpack filling the river channels with muds flows. As the volcanic activity migrated westward layers of ash and mud were covered with lava cap (Farallon plate subduction).

Multiple river systems meandered westward draining a plateau (Nevadaplano) to the east then flowing down the slope (2%) of the Sierras into a sea (Foresthills). Volcanic ash falls and mud flows filled these river valleys (Eocene 55 mya). Water flowing down slope would cut through these ash and mud deposits following the old river channels or eroding new river channels. As the eastern volcanic activity approached the Sierra slope lava flows (andesitic) cap the earlier (rhyolitic) ash deposits along the then existing erosion features (Miocene 24 mya).

As the climate cooled (from all the volcanic activity?) the Sierras ice sheets and glaciers formed eventually eroding the west slope high elevation metamorphic rock formations down to the rising granitic batholiths. (There are exceptions near the summit and along the east slope - Bonds Pass, Convict Lake, etc). The west slope high elevation sections of the Eocene river channels were carried off in the metamorphic sediments. More recent river canyons were cut down into the granitic batholiths starting with the periodic melting of the ice sheets and glaciers. 

With the departure of Africa and the opening of the Atlantic Ocean combined with the central west coast pushing over the mid pacific spreading ridge (San Andreas Fault) compression lessen and the plateau east of the Sierras transitioned into the Basin Range Range Complex and the Walker Lane along the east Sierra escarpment. Where found in the basin range the Eocene river channels are offset up to 20 miles from range, across the basin to the adjacent range. 

The ridges surrounding the cabin are probably Miocene channels, the springs and seeps flow from the contact between the granitic bedrock and volcanic layers/caps that escapes the glaciers. 

As for the river worn quartz pebbles, I find them in the meadows, on the ridge slopes and on the ridge tops where the volcanic caps have eroded away. There a couple of rhyolite bluffs that may hide a clue. Other than that, I am clueless.