Pocket Creek, Dec 5th

Having done most of the most recognized snow routes in the Mt Hood area, I wanted to try something new which obviously meant more driving. Pocket Creek is located on the Eastern side of the mountain right after Teacup Lake. Both of these places, but specially Teacup, are reserved for cross country skiers as the Nordic club grooms these trails. From Pocket Creek, there are a couple of trails that are not groomed and seemed to offer great views with a descent workout. From the parking lot, we started snowshoeing on a forest road up the hill. At first, the views were not very good but right before we got to the first turn off to descend to Teacup, some views of the valley opened up. About half way up, we found a fork that, on one side goes to Bennet Pass which would require a longer day and a car shuttle, and a road that goes uphill for a while until it ends at the Pillory Vista which we took. The hike up was as expected quite the workout. The views of the valley of the hood river were splendid but we completely missed the views of the mountain even on the couple of minutes that we got blue skies. There’s plenty to do in the area and I did notice a creek so some backcountry snowshoeing will probably happen in the area before the season is over. One thing that did stand out though was the face in the snow. That was really cool



You can check the pictures here