Snowy mountain adventure

We took advantage of Brad's mini vacation for a day trip to Mount Hood with friends!

We met the Jolleys at 8 a.m. Friday in Tigard for a caravan to the Glacier View Sno-Park in Government Camp. There was a short stop at Meadowlark in Sandy for snowshoe rentals.

There were just two other cars in the lot when we arrived, and we had the trails almost to ourselves the whole morning. And the weather was just about perfect!

First, we did the Kurt's Connection loop. Then we circled Enid Lake. It was snowing heavily when we reached the clearing. Perfect for a family picture! 

Look at that crew! 

The family was on borrowed and rented gear. Brad and I always brag about our MSR snowshoes that strap in super quick, easy, and snug, a better system than some others with cloth straps that are difficult to tighten. BUT... those rubber straps have a shelf life, and Saturday was the day they failed! Brad and I almost immediately lost ALL the straps on our snowshoes - that's four per shoe! It was quite comical to watch each strap snap off.

Fortunately, we'd brought along cross-country skis to possibly use later in the day. So Brad returned to the car, swapped his gear, and skied down with my skis and boots. I swapped in the middle of the trail and skied the rest of the day.

With the very slow snow pack, the trails were much more conducive to snowshoeing than skiing. It was a challenging first ski outing of the year, and I crashed a couple times because of hidden roots and such. There was also a really sketchy creek crossing - but I did not end up in the water!

It was so fun to hang out with this crew:

After our two loops, we returned to the cars for cookies and cold pizza. Then it was on to Summit for tubing and hot chocolate. It was so fun to watch the younger Jolleys enjoy the snow! We would have joined them on the tubing hill if it wasn't $25/person!! Yikes!

We had a wonderful day and can't wait to get out again! Thanks, Jolley family, for spending the day with us :)