On Sunday, the Mt. Hood area got another 4 inches of snow and we headed up with our snowshoes to hit the trails.
ODOT was requiring chains or traction devices, which brought trafffic to a standstill as people were pulling out to put on chains.
Les Schwab has already put on our snow tires for the year, and the all wheel drive of our Suburu gets us up the mountain nicely.
The long delay in traffic slowed our plans so we stopped at the Snow Bunny recreation area which is one of the first good trail heads past Timberline. From there, we headed north on the Snow Bunny trail, then east on the Yellowjacket trail, and then back south to the parking area using the Whiteaway trail. It snowed for much of the trek but once we got into the trees then winds calmed. For much of the yellowjacket, and all the Whiteaway trail, there had been no one on the trail for a day or so, which allowed us to break trail through fresh snow. I am guessing the base there is about 100 inches, and in the airy snow I was often sinking 12 inches. Shoeing in powder is a little more effort than the packed snow. This increased effort seems to make up for the fact that our snow shoe hikes are so much shorter than our trail hikes, and it also makes the gray, high 20 degree weather just a little more enjoyable. As usual, we started off prior to lunch, then hiked to a good spot with a view to sit and have a bite, then continue on. All told, it was likely a 4 mile hike. Don’t really know how long it took, as long as we time it to be back well before dark, the time isn’t that important.