Ghost Ridge, Jan 1st

If you have followed my stories, you know that Val and I like to snowshoe on Jan 1st. It’s just a good way to start a new year, and this year was no exception. Last couple of years we’ve done hikes instead because we didn’t have good snow on the ground but finally this year conditions changed. Knowing conditions were good, we went to one of my favorites places to snowshoe, the Barlow Pass area, but instead of doing the normal long loop that goes over the ridge and connects to Palmateer Point, we opted for a shorter lollipop Loop so we would time to relax afterwards, besides, we both had to return to work on Friday. From the trail head we knew it was going to be a spectacular day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the air was cold and crisp. As we started on the PCT towards Ghost Ridge, we enjoyed the sun filtering thru the trees and illuminating the forest. It made for a perfect scenery to play a bit with my new camera. AS we move further, the trail got harder and harder as not too many people had gone since the last snowfall. Once we reached the almost unnoticeable saddle, we veered off tail and followed the ridge to our destination. At one point we came out of the forest into the open and were welcomed with a spectacular view of the hill and valley beyond and sun above us. We saw a couple of groups on the trail enjoying the same thing. From that point it was simply straight up to the top where you can turn around and enjoy the view of Mt Hood. Instead of retracing our steps, we continued on the ridge breaking new snow and then started veering to the left to head back down towards the PCT. I guess I missed when we crossed it as at some point I knew we were not where we needed to be. In fact, we were a bit below the trail so we had to find our way thru the forest, going uphill until we found the PCT again. Once there we did retrace our steps back to the parking lot where we found way more cars than what we saw when we got there. I guess a lot of people had similar ideas to celebrate the new year.



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White River, Dec 19th

Our classic end of year/beginning of year snowshoe. AS we have done many times in the past we try to make a point of doing this snowshoe to kick off the season. Last year it wasn’t that good as we had an incredibly warm winter. This year it has been better and with a little help from el Niño, we’ve gotten a bit more snow. It was time to go check it out. We got lucky in getting thee before the hordes would fill up the parking area which is usually what happens on sunny clear days. There were some low hanging clouds but not enough to obscure the magnificent views of Mt Hood. We did our usual hike following the river trail uphill until you leave he crowds behind and get to “The big hill”. We love going up there not only for the fun of it but also to get the better views. From the top we were able to hear loud music, probably from a party at Timberline Lodge. With that we explored a bit more uphill until we decided to turn around and head back. It was a very cold day. Instead of doing the back-country route back though, we decided to go down the way we came which we rarely do. A couple had just arrived there and were taking pictures to then glissade all the way down. That looked like fun so we followed doing the same. The rest of the trail was the normal walk ending with tons of people, kids and dogs enjoying the snow and some fun glissading



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