Big Ski Hill Challenge Hiking. I Need To Hit The Trail. The Skis Are Too Fast.

Mom-  We were invited by a friend to snow camp but being the parent of two young kids, I have not been up to trying that yet, so we set out to try to find our friends who were camped at Trillium Lake.

 Amy- Trillium tree branches were covered in snow.

 Mom- Analise had just been in the hospital and really disliked snow last year, so it was just Amy, Sarah, and I.  Amy decided to use the skis she has used since she was 2 1/2 since her sister was not around to use them.  She did a great job skiing down the big hill!

 Mom-  We found some smoldering charcoal, but not our friends and wondered if they had camped further down the road.  We had never tried the full Trillium Lake loop and especially enjoyed the snowy meadow.

Mom- We sat and listened to a pioneer story while seeing a pioneer grave.  The first recorded person to summit Mt. Hood is buried here.

Mom- Amy was a little cranky about the difficulty of snow hiking, having given up her skis after the big hill.

Mom- We pressed on through the winter wonderland, getting quite a workout in our snowshoes and boots.

Mom- The big trees and snow made us feel very small.

Mom- We found beautiful Trillium Lake and enjoyed spending some time here.

Amy- We built a snowman.( Down below )( And up above )  

Amy- I coldly took off my gloves and put them on the snowman.  Do you see them?

Amy-  Do you see the nose on the snowman?

Mom- We enjoyed using the campground facilities and building a snowman together.

Mom- We had some well deserved lunch by the lake.

Mom- Mt. Hood started to peak out.  I wondered if it is ever reflected on ice like it is on the water?

Mom- We said goodbye to the lake and tromped up the big hill in good spirits.  We were proud of our five mile snowshoeing accomplishment.

Inversion Amazement at Trillium Lake

It was a foggy January day in Portland.  When we left Portland the temperature was in the 30s.  An inversion was happening and the warm air trapped at higher elevations made Mt. Hood a sunny high 60s.







We went to the popular Trillium Lake road and started stripping off our layers.







Both kids were so happy to be less bundled and warm in the snow.  All of a sudden in felt like spring.







We took plenty of breaks as usual.  Amy skied down the steep hill to the lake.







Sarah got some baby therapy.







Mt. Hood was out in all her glory.  I was so sleep deprived that I wondered if we would see a reflection on the lake!







Unfortunately, there were people feeding the "camp robber" birds and they were dive bombing us, so we did not stay to eat very long.  Amy protected our food.







Baby Analise decided this snow stuff wasn't all that bad.







Amy was a great sport about climbing up the big hill.







We reluctantly left the sunny, snowy, warm oasis in the mountains to go back to the cloudy cold city below.