April 9, 2011, North Gardner

I was out in mazama with my family for the weekend and needed something to do saturday. I had been to south gardner six years ago via abernathy. This time I went in from the north side up cedar creek to check out the approach to north gardner. It seemed like a good way to go on maps and I sure knew I wasn't going to get in there via wolf creek. I walked the first mile of highway twenty from the cabin till I hit snow at the roads end right past early winters creek. I skinned up the road and up cedar creek to huckleberry creek via some ridge to its west. A minor mistake but it ended up working. I hadn't planned on going up this far but the new snow was well bonded and I had the time. There was about a foot of wet snow in the basin making skinning horrible. I found some wind packed powder up higher. I ended up getting to the top mid afternoon in a sea of clouds. The first 1/3 of the run was good and the rest was survival riding on slop. Overall this is a really nice area and provides some solitude. I'd say there is only a little more time left before the snow on the approach melts out and reveals some brush. I didn't take any worthwhile photos because of the flat light and clouds.