Trillium Lake

Bundled up and ready to snowshoe!

Our latest adventure at Trillium Lake was unique in that it was our first experience snowshoeing in fresh, untouched powder! We left Portland proper around 11:30AM and made it to Trillium Lake and hit the trail around 1:40PM. The drive becomes more familiar with each trip, and we recognize random yet distinct spots each time, including: Joe's Donuts in Sandy, the "nicest Walgreens ever" near Government Camp that looks like a gorgeous log cabin ski lodge, the Rendezvous Grill in Welches, and the Subway in Zig Zag to name a few! Today the drive was gorgeous and felt like Christmas due to the beautiful snow-covered trees and landscape. We played some Amy Grant Christmas tunes for ambiance. :)

Glorious, glorious powder made for a beautiful winter wonderland!

Our journey to and from Trillium Lake from the trailhead took around two and a half exhausting hours. We began our trek in the deep powder, which was so luxuriously fluffy and smooth, but found that this was quite tiring. Still, the experience was rather heavenly. We rejoined the main trail, which we shared with cross country skiers and walked the sloping ascents and descents to the lake. Once at the lake, we didn't stay long since it was snowing pretty hard by then.

At the lake

Luckily, it wasn't too windy, but we thought it would be wise to head for the car before it got worse. For the three hours we were shoeing, the weather alternated between snow showers and blue sky.

Reports said it snowed three feet the night before

There weren't too many people on the trails, and our sense of isolation lent itself to a certain peace and serenity. All we could hear were our shoes floating rhythmically through the soft powder. We paused here and there to take some pictures...we admit that sometimes it was an excuse to rest or eat some snow. :) Snowshoeing is a good workout as it is, let alone in deep powder! That the trails were packed powder eased our efforts. In the process of writing this entry, we came across this nice summary of snow types (both falling and on the ground) on Wikipedia. Our previous trips included snow that fit the descriptions of "corn," "crud," "crust," and "packed powder." Today's snow definitely took the cake.

We also want to look into some snowskates so that we can enjoy the downhill portions we come across. Snowboards would be nice, but snowskate boards would be much easier and lighter to carry. That'll be a project for the distant future as we are poor students and can only invest in new equipment a little at a time. For the time being, snowshoeing is more than satisfactory. :)

Exhausted but very happy, we headed back to Portland. Hooray for another wonderful snowshoeing adventure!

Glacier View

Enid Lake at Glacier View Snow Park

The forecast predicted that it would rain Saturday and Sunday when we checked earlier in the week. We were keeping our fingers crossed that there would be a break in the rain so that we could go snowshoeing! Luckily, on Saturday morning, the forecast said "late rains" on Saturday and "snow/rain" all day Sunday. That was good enough for us! We packed up as quickly as possible headed to Hood!

We used the trusty iPhone on the road to choose a close snow park that was also high enough to have snow. Glacier View was our top choice and we arrived there around 2PM. It was minutes away from Government Camp, which we had passed through last trip to get to White River Canyon. We geared up and hit the trail! There were many possible routes and we choose the Glacier View Loop. We soon realized that we went the wrong way and found ourselves on the Enid Lake Trail. That was just fine with us since we were hoping to take that loop eventually too. :)

We reached Enid Lake, pausing on its snowy banks to rest and take in the beauty surrounding us.


We continued on and took the loop back to the trailhead. We really enjoyed snowshoeing through the trees and windy trails. The topography of the terrain was great. We tried to capture this in some photos:

After returning to the trailhead, Stephanie sat down in the snow to meditate (which quickly evolved to a nap) and Mike set out for the Glacier View loop. We met up after about an hour and headed home. We passed by but did not stop at the Rendezvous Grill since we're poor students and also because we needed to get back home so we could study and not feel too guilty for taking the day off. :) As it turns out, we went to bed soon after getting home--snowshoeing is tiring! But so, so fun!!

Mt. Hood as seen from Enid Lake

White River Canyon

On one of our rare non-test weekends, we headed to the snow once again! This time our destination was White River Canyon at Mt. Hood. We grabbed our gear and hit the road. After a lovely 1.5hr drive, we arrived in Government Camp. We bought the parking pass for White River Canyon and briefly looked around town. It's so new and quaint! There are a handful of restaurants, a bakery, a general store, and a hotel.

We then headed to White River Canyon, about five minutes away by car. It was a beautiful, clear day; we didn't need to dress in many layers. Plus, one builds up quite a sweat when snowshoeing! We geared up and began our trek. The snow was quite crusty, which actually proved rather satisfying. Unlike downhill skiing or snowboarding, snowshoeing doesn't seem to depend as much on the snow conditions. As long as there is snow, we can 'shoe!

We walked toward Mt. Hood's peak for about an hour and then headed back. The pace was relaxing and allowed us to take in the natural beauty all around us. We love being surrounded by the vast sky, big open spaces, pristine white snow, and stately trees. How wonderful to feel so at One with Nature, so at peace. :) At one point we walked down to the river to appreciate its brisk movement along the jagged rocks and silty riverbed.

Just as we returned to the car, the sun began to set, providing a beautiful glowing red sky of a backdrop behind Hood. We felt satisfied with another great day in the snow! Our journey home included a dinner stop at the Rendezvous Grill in Welches. We both enjoyed a bacon cheeseburger with Raclette. Yum!! (To clarify, we each enjoyed our own burger--we had worked up quite an appetite!) This restaurant is family owned and has such a comfortable atmosphere, great service, and delicious food! We hope to dine there again!

Episode I

As we prepared for our 2009 OHSU Sunriver trip, we thought about which activities we'd like to participate in once in snow country!  Last year we went cross-country skiing around our classmate Britt's house, which was really fun!  This year, however, it was reported that there would be little snow (if any) by Britt's house in La Pine.  Keeping this in mind, we weighed our options.  We could go snowboarding on Mt. Bachelor, go horseback riding, go cross-country skiing elsewhere, or we could try snowshoeing!  We chose the latter!  Intrigued by this new sport (new to us, that is), we did some preliminary research by looking on Craigslist and calling REI to check availability and what the going prices are.  REI's shoes proved to be too expensive (even the shoes on sale!) and we felt too inexperienced to buy from someone on Craigslist.  We decided to play things by ear and perhaps rent once we were in Sunriver.

We began our 4-hour drive to Sunriver soon after class.  It was a clear and beautiful day.  It hadn't snowed much since Arctic Blast 2008/Snowpocalypse a few weeks earlier.  The only recent precipitation had been lots of rain!  It was a pleasant drive, and we stopped at Black Butte Lodge to enjoy the view (gorgeous sunset!) and grab a quick dinner (delicious restaurants!).

View from Black Butte Lodge

We then drove on to Bend and then Sunriver.  Around Bend, we stopped at WalMart (don't tell anyone!) since we had read online that they had affordable snowshoes.  They didn't carry them in-store and recommended Big 5.  We had trouble finding Big 5 but stuck to it, and we're glad we did!  They had one pair of cute pastel purple women's snowshoes left, one pair of poles left, and one orange and black (almost Blazer colors!) pair of men's shoes.  We were on the fence, but we decided to just go for it!  True, the equipment wasn't dirt cheap, but we viewed it as an investment.  Rentals around about $15-$20, so we figured they'd pay for themselves after a few trips to the snow.  Also, we wouldn't need to buy lift tickets...we'd save hundreds of dollars! ;)

With new equipment in hand, we continued our drive to La Pine.  As predicted, there was very little snow coverage...only a crusty layer of ice remained.  The following day we went to Meissner's Snow Park and tried out our new gear!  We chuckled, too, since we'd learned about Meissner's plexus and Meissner's corpuscle in class...I guess we're true nerds and were drawn to more things named after this Meissner! 

We couldn't have asked for better conditions!  It was blue sky and the perfect temperature.  We appreciated the crisp air since we got hot snowshoeing--it's such a great workout whew!  We had heard that one burns a lot of calories snowshoeing (even more than running) but couldn't really imagine this to be true.  Well, just a few minutes in the snow turned us into believers!  It was strangely satisfying romping through the slightly crusted-over snow...the way we'd break through the surface ice and sink a few inches in the untouched powder beneath (we off-roaded it!).  Our poles proved invaluable (luckily, Britt had an extra pair to lend us!).  They were a perfect addition and really quite helpful as we wove between trees and used them for support on uneven ground.

This park had some snowshoe trails that we followed. We also made some of our own. :)

We eventually made it to a quaint little warming hut.  We met other members of our party, Greg, Britt, Angie, Sam, Trevor and Dom.  They had been cross-country skiing and had been there awhile already, enjoying the warmth of the wood stove.  After spending some time there we headed back to the parking lot.  

Snowshoeing was so fun!  We were so pumped about our new equipment and activity and promised ourselves we'd go as often as possible.  Just as we felt when we bought bikes together, we were excited about learning about the culture of our new sport!  We joked that we'd subscribe to Snowshoeing World or whatever the most popular magazine is for avid snowshoers.

We headed back to Britt's for a relaxing evening full of yummy food, board games, Rock Band, and plain ol' hanging out.

The following morning, we left Britt's and headed back to Portland.  On our way back, we stopped at Lost Lake.  It lived up to its name as it was quite difficult to find!  The driveway was pretty much nonexistent and looked more like a turnout on the highway.  

There were at least 2-3 feet of snow!  We climbed up to the snow and put on our gear.  We explored the grounds, admiring the misty beauty of the lake and the pristine powder surrounding and covering the pine trees.  We noticed a beautiful, lacy green lichen hanging from the pine trees as well.  Surrounded by white, the whole setting reminded us of Narnia, especially with all the mist.  

Satisfied with our time at Lost Lake, we headed back to the car and headed home.  What a great first couple of snowshoeing experiences!  We can't wait for more! Till next time!

Three Sisters and Broken Top as seen on our drive home