Shakedown Cruise

I took the Solara up to the Sierra foothills this

weekend to visit friends, and continued a little farther up into the mountains. It was the Solara's first sustained road trip, and it cruised the Cali highways very nicely. I did not test it in the snow; when I went up to about 4500 feet yesterday, no snow had fallen for a week so the highways were bare and dry. But with the La Nina weather pattern we've had this winter, there is certainly a lot of snow in the Sierra. We have alternated between cold storms with low snow levels and dry sunny periods. In most years we also get some warm storms that melt most snow below 4-5 thousand feet, but not this year.

Here the Solara is parked at a vista point 4500-5 thousand feet above sea level, not far from Blue Canyon. There are about 6 feet of snow on the ground though the temperature is around 53 deg F. An ideal day to enjoy winter snow without the winter weather! On the trip back down the mountain I put the top down and cruised alfresco past the snowbanks.