This was probably one of the most fun trips we’ve ever done. After discovering the Trails Club of Oregon during our holiday adventures, we decided to visit the other club lodge. Tyee lodge is in Mt Hood close to the route that goes up to Timberline lodge. It’s very close to the road even though is not marked in any map. After parking and getting ready, we took the trail to the lodge that did not take more than 15 minutes. The lodge itself is spectacular and even with more services than the lodge in the Columbia Gorge. This one has electricity and central heating! After we got there and had some nice hot cocoa and help a bit with weekend set up, we went out to play in the snow. The idea was to dig snow caves and learn a bit about it. We learned that digging a snow cave is laborious but not as difficult as it would seem. Not only that, we found to be incredible that you can dig a big hole in the snow without having it collapse on you. Since we were a big group, we divided in small teams to build the caves (caves must be built by at least two people for security reasons). The resulting caves were incredible. One had a couple of “beds” on the sides, another one had a bed at the end, another was build with a division simulating two rooms and another was just big. We also found out that while being inside you’re really protected from the elements and not as cold. Besides that, if the day is clear enough, light will pass thru the snow giving the interior an amazing blue glow. For a while we thought it was because the cave ceiling was thin, but after we measured and it was at least 2 feet thick. With all this experience we are now ready for a night out in snow caves which will happen soon. Obviously after the caves were done, it was time for some fun. In the pictures you’ll see that it was a great day.
View pictures of the hike | BTW Most of the pictures in this album (the best ones actually) are courtesy of Marci Dru.
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