Backpacking through Snow for Fun?

We made an impromptu trip out to our family property this last weekend. The route was covered in snow 2ft+ deep, and was far too soft to drive on top of. My cousin quickly figured that out after getting his truck buried after only 100ft. However the ATVs we brought were light enough and we used them to haul the majority of our gear. The rest of our gear we hiked down on our frame packs.

Unfortunately I still haven't invested in snow shoes, so the hike was slow going. I was very impressed with my son who didn't complain once on the long hike.

We arrived at the lake to find it frozen over, and strong enough to walk across. We didn't want to push the limits, so we only ventured out a short distance onto the lagoon section for pictures. My girlfriend's grandmother has told us stories of her ice skating on the lake when she was little. That would be an amazing experience especially for my girlfriend who's an avid figure/syncro ice skater. I'll have to research the proper procedures and safety guidelines for skating on a naturally frozen lake.

Before dinner We spent a couple hours digging out the old fire pit, and building a curved wind break wall around it with the snow. For dinner we boiled water and ate a few dehydrated meals. I can't praise those enough, so simple and delicious. I especially love the chili-mac and lasagna dinners. After dinner we enjoyed some scotch & cigars around the fire pit. We also had some music thanks to my iPod and the surprisingly good/cheap travel speakers I bought earlier in the day.

It rained all night on us, but fortunately stopped long enough the next day for us to pack up and hike out. We also had to spend three hours digging my cousin's truck out of the snow. Very laborious, but a good educational lesson for my city slicker friends.

In all a great trip. I can't wait to come back and spend more time at the lake this spring!

The Hills are Alive

As I mentioned before one of my goals is to start hiking the PCT. This weekend Heath, Damon, and I will be hiking the Timberline to Cascade Locks stretch of the PCT. We will start close to dawn on Saturday and finish Monday afternoon/evening. We're hoping to hike an average of 16 miles per day. While this may not seem too ambitious to some hikers, this is very ambitious for our group. We aren't exactly triathlon competitors, unless it's a pinball-pool-darts competition. In fact I'm willing to take bets on how much weight I'll loose on this hike. A few years back during one of our Three Creek backpacking trips I lost 10lbs over the course of the weekend. I'm willing to bet this time it'll be more like 15lbs. Which will be a good kickoff to getting back into my workout routine. We're planning to document our adventure as thoroughly as possible. We'll have a plethora of digital photography equipment, a video camera, voice recorder, GPS unit, and good old fashion pencil & paper. So in a worst case scenario you'll have plenty of footage and journal entries to compile a Blair Witch style documentary of our travels. But let's all just think good thoughts and hope we complete the hike, safely, and on schedule. I'll post a write-up and gallery of pics on the site when we return. For anyone who's interested here are some links to maps of the trail we'll be hiking (The thick red line is the PCT). Sections: G1-G2, G2-G4, G4-G5, G5-G7.

Pacific Crest Trail

I've always enjoyed the wilderness and being outdoors, especially when your miles away from all the people, sounds, and sites of civilization. In recent years my interest in backpacking has increased, and one of the ultimate goals of any west coast backpacker is to do a thru-hike on the PCT. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of taking a 3-6 month break from my life to do a through hike. So I'm making plans to hike the length of the trail in sections. I'm in no great hurry and figure that this is a long term life goal. I'll likely get to do most of the sections once my son Logan is old enough to join the Scouts and we can make this a mutual goal. This summer I'm planning to hike the stretch of trail from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood to the town of Cascade Locks, OR. This is a challenging stretch of trail as it has a 3,160' drop in approx 50 miles, that is why I'm doing the stretch in reverse and hiking downhill instead of up.