Finally I got this book and new map with a ton of winter trails that I didn’t know about so I decided to try one of them. We started from the Barlow Pass Sno-Park in Mt Hood and instead of continuing on the road (which most people seem to do) we took the Mineral Jane trail. This trail starts with a nice descend to a small valley south of the highway with numerous trails going to several peaks around the area. After a bit over an hour, we got to a T shaped intersection with the Barlow Ridge trail. This trail follows the Barlow Butte hill on the Eastside with beautiful views of the White River Basin. As you’ll see in the pictures, this is a service road, luckily for us, there was about a foot of new snow which made this hike so much better. The Barlow Ridge trail actually goes all the way around the butte so at some point, we decided to veer of trail and try a bit of backcountry. Knowing where the ridge was supposed to be, we headed that way for a while and then turn back to meet, at some point, back with the road. This portion of the hike was probably the best one. Fresh deep powder and no tracks at all. It was simply fantastic. After getting back on the road, we hiked back to Mineral Jane and then up to the parking lot. Along that way I saw a couple of trails that look very promising so don’t e surprised if I post another Snowshoe in the area.
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