Pocket Creek (1/8/22)

The new year's snow kept coming, so we had to go back to the mountain!!

Lindsey joined us for our first cross-country ski outing of 2022. Keeping safety first as COVID raged, we masked up in the car.

Pocket Creek is off Highway 35 just past Hood River Meadows. We arrived without too much difficulty and found the parking lot starting to fill.

It was the first blue-bird day of the season, so everyone wanted to be out there! This was the start of the horrific traffic weekend that had cars stuck in gridlock for hours and hours and hours. Fortunately, we snuck out before it got too bad.

The before - so excited!

The snow wasn't quite as nice as the week before with a few inches of fresh on top of a bit of a crust. But it was still awesome.

We took the trail clockwise, heading up the easy-rated Pocket Creek Trail. The snow-covered Forest Service road is a fairly gentle grade up through the trees. We stopped to catch our breath and saw the mountain in all her glory!

We took a right at the Meadows Creek Trail, which is rated more difficult. We were the only ones out there, and it was absolutely gorgeous!

We took a right on Meadows Creek Tie Trail to connect the loop back to Pocket Creek Trail.

Since this section isn't a wide, smooth road, it posed a bit more challenge. We encountered a bunch of up-hill traffic just when we reached a steep, tricky section. We all made it down, but it was a bit exciting 😁

Signs warn that Clark Creek Bridge is closed, but we found it covered with so much snow that it was stable and passable. 

As expected, the route was crowded closer to the trailhead. But farther from the cars, we had solitude - and it was glorious 😎