Barlow Ridge, Dec 22nd

Barlow Ridge is one of my, at least once a year snowshoe route. It follows the same way as the mineral Jane but once you get to the T junction with the Barlow Road, you turn right instead of left. Then it’s pretty much a choice on how far you want to go. Sometimes I get to a point where I veer off and climb towards Barlow Butte but this time we decided to keep it simple and just enjoy the day. The day started a bit cloudy but very soon it cleared up and we had a fantastic, clear blue sky day with excellent powdery snow. About half way up we found the end of the tracks from whoever went before us so from that point on we were breaking new trail. As we went, we took turns to be up front doing the hard work while the rest followed. We continued like that for a while until we found a sunny spot ideal for lunch and return point. Around us the scenery was incredible. The heavy snow was pushing the smaller trees down which, on the side of the hill, looked like a little army of tired monsters. After enjoying the scenery for a while and just before it got really cold, we started our way back the same way to the car.



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Mineral Jane, Dec 8th

So what else can you do from Barlow Pass? Well, you can definitely try Mineral Jane. I did this once before trying to reach White River which we never did. After hours plowing thru the snow, we finally got tired, turned left and got back on hwy35 to walk back to the car. That obviously left me wanting to explore more. Looking at maps, there are a couple of trails in the area which are not marked for winter navigation. Trying to follow any of these is a bit of a challenge. On top of that, there’s water. Once you get to the meadow area, there are several creeks that flow south. To this day, I haven’t found bridges or an “easy” way to cross. The couple of times I’ve been in the area, we’ve opted for the biggest log and just crossing on top of it. Certainly this is no easy task. On one side you have the freezing running water bellow which you certainly want to avoid and then, you have the snow/ice accumulated on the log that makes crossing with snowshoes a bit tricky. With all that we still decided to go and try it again. It was a beautiful day in its own way. Yes, the pictures don’t show blue skies or even sun, still the scenery was beautiful with a million shades of grey. We did have a couple of extra challenges as there wasn’t enough snow to bend and cover all the vines. Although it sounds as improbable, we were bushwhacking in the snow



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