High Meadow Wonderland

Under dire but vacillating weather predictions, our group of eight headed up to Castle Valley for our around Castle and Basin trek.  The clouds were so-so and could go either way. By eleven we were hearing thunder so we figured maybe we could get to our high mountain meadows on the side of Basin Peak. Then we could turn around if need be. 

The meadows were in full bloom!  We had timed it just right this year. But the weather was not timed right. We could see darkening skies with precipitation falling, up towards the Sierra Buttes. To enjoy the meadows, we sat on scattered, partly embedded rocks and started our lunches. Pretty soon things didn't feel right so we donned our vests and raincoats in case.  I was up on the hill "taking care of business" when I felt something hit my raincoat and plopping to the ground. Will you look at that!!  I gotta show that to the others!  Picking it up, I realized it was not a white alabaster rock but a round piece of ice!  Even more amazing!  Wishing to show it to the others, I pulled myself together and started running towards them. At that point, it suddenly started raining these white ice balls upon us so fast we couldn't protect ourselves. To the tree!  We were screaming from the pain of them hitting us as we scrambled to fit 8 people under a scraggly little pine. A funny sight. The hail storm was over and the rain was intermittent during the hike back to the car.  We had hiked 9.5 miles. 

From Peter: