Pocket Creek (3/6/09)

Finally... some fresh snow on Mount Hood!
Laura, Jacob Lindsey and Christine piled in my parents' studded minivan Saturday for XC ski trip to Pocket Creek off Highway 35, just past the Mt. Hood Meadows nordic center. We stopped at Mountain Tracks in Government Camp (our favorite rental place) to get skis for our ski-less friends. Soon, we were gliding along the trail with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds.

The first half mile of the Pocket Creek Trail is slightly downhill. Then we hung a right on the tie trail and climbed steadily for about 2 miles before emerging from the woods at the top of the PC trail. The tie is more narrow and had a few tricky bridge crossings. We managed to find a couple small hills to go up and down and up and down and up and down. Still working on her downhill technique, Lindsey had a couple spectacular face plants! Luckily, she has a great attitude and kept getting up for more :)

We ate lunch where the tie connects to the main trail. Brad's missing from the picture because skiing some "sweet hills" behind us was more enticing than sitting for a short meal.
After lunch, it was all down hill... literally. The road is smooth and wide, and we coasted nearly the whole way back. What a blast! The snow was dry but dense, not fluffy... kinda strange. It was fairly slick, helping make for a fast return trip.

Christine wasn't feeling great that morning. She had sinus pressure but decided to take some DayQuil and tough it out. Unfortunately, her ear didn't pop coming off the mountain, so she was in some serious pain. She headed for an urgent care clinic while we went in search of Chinese food.

Jill, the voice on Brad's GPS, took us to Happy Restaurant in Gladstone. The food wasn't great, but it also wasn't horrible -- there was a lot of it, and that's what we needed. Jacob, in particular, announced that he was deciding based mostly on the size of his dish. However, he stopped eating after just a few minutes and got a sad look on his face. Then he told us that he forgot that Chinese food makes him sick. Duh! Next time, hopefully the hunger won't cloud his judgement and he'll remember that before we choose the restaurant!

Overall, it was a great day!
-Liz :)