Posts Tagged ‘snowshoeing’
Friday Photo: The Good Life
Sometimes cold mountain air does more for a creative work brainstorm than a desk could ever do. Well, all of the time actually.
2011: Off to a Running Start
Combine friends, snowshoes, and a crisp, sunny winter day and you have the recipe for the successful start to a whole new year.
Friday Photo: Snowshoeing Galore
Snowshoeing Mt. Rainier
Fresh snow crunches under your feet. Along the trail, paw prints of a small forest creature lead the way. The sun shines. You take a break to drink tea from your thermos and slice of a piece of brie cheese that’s your one gourmet indulgence in the backcountry. You continue along, excited about the prospect of an evening in front of a warm stove in a cozy ski hut. You contemplate to yourself how a winter trip doesn’t get much better than this.
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Earlier this winter I was craving some snow time, and decided to check out the Mount Tahoma Trails Association hut-to-hut ski trail system, a collection of groomed trails used by the Forest Service in the summer and snowshoers and cross country skiers in the winter. A common obstacle to pursuing winter backcountry adventures is of course that it’s cold and gets dark early, not the optimal tent conditions for most. Fortunately the MTTA maintains several different backcountry accommodations, including a yurt, all complete with propane stoves, sleeping pads and complete kitchens. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it ‘glamping,’ but high end backcountry digs is certainly a fitting definition.
A Weekend of Iceshoeing… Oh Wait, Snowshoeing
Went snowshoeing a couple of weekends ago, and although it hadn’t snowed in ages and the physical activity probably should have been deemed “iceshoeing,” it was a great adventure all the same.
An excerpt from my trip dispatch over at Wend:
Packs filled with apples and granola bars (because we left in too much of a hurry to actually plan a real lunch), we set out on a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, headed for Trillium Lake. To say the snow was well packed would be an understatement. “Having fun on the ice today?” I remarked when we passed a group of cross country skiiers.
“Yeah, you’re probably having a much easier time,” replied one of them, pointing to my snowshoes.
“True, although I think it would be easier just to walk.”
But if you’ve come to snowshoe, you’re going to snowshoe dammit! No matter how much easier taking them off might be…
Read the whole thing here along with a great slideshow of pics.
