White River – Boy Scout Ridge, Dec 31st

After many grey days, we finally got an amazing day for New Years Eve. Although a bit colder than usual, we woke up to crisp blue skies and almost no clouds. Luckily, I had picked a snowshoe in one of the most scenic sections of Mount Hood. I rarely take pictures on the way to the trailhead but this day it was worth it. Once we got to White River, we started from an almost desolated trail snowshoeing on the river basin. Instead of taking the normal cutoff trail that goes into the forest and climbs towards Boy Scout Ridge, we continued up as far as you can go which ends on a very steep hill that climbs towards the ridge. Not only the views here were just amazing, but the snow was also fluffy and slippery. That made the climb a bit difficult as we were losing a bit of traction. After a grueling hour or so, we finally made it to the ridge just above tree line. From this vantage point, the white river extends bellow us while we had a clear view of the mountain and Timberline Lodge. At this point we stopped for a lunch break and some snow play. You’ll see in the pictures some of the hikers in the group trying some yoga poses. Then, it was time to get in the woods, so we started snowshoeing south on the ridge. As we continued down, aiming for the Boy Scout Ridge Trail, we were braking new snow and navigating thru the forest. We completed the loop and got back to the White River trail on the cutoff that we didn’t take on the way up and were surprised to see that a lot of people had arrived to white river to play in the snow. Besides being run over by a couple of sleds, it was a very nice winter scene. On our way home, we stopped, as we usually do, to grab something to eat which we thought was a nice closing for the hike and the year but we had just one more surprise. As we drove back to gateway, we had a spectacular sunset. I guess you can say 2010 went out with a bang.



You can check the pictures here