Christmas Vacation part 3- yup, back to the snow again

It was a beautiful day: slightly cloudy, soft snow falling, the sun peaking out every now and then, a cool 20 degrees. It was perfect conditions for a snow shoe hike. Jason and Jennifer Lee decided to come along this time despite our nutty Christmas day escapade. We drove up to Trillium lake this time, a place Elisabeth and I love to frequent during the summer. This time, we decided to leave the dogs at home.














The Trillium trail was packed with people. Apparently it's a very popular snow shoe/cross country skiing spot. Going there was easy, it was down-hill the whole way. I thinking to myself this was going to be an easy little hike, and it was... until we took a wrong turn. We turned a bit too soon and got into some heavy snow. Luckily someone had blazed a previous trail. On the way, we stopped to take some pictures.














We arrived at the lake a quarter of a mile from where we wanted to be. So we trudged around the lake, sometimes on the ice, to our destination.






























There we sat and snacked. It was a badly needed rest. As we headed back, I was thinking to myself " well the way here wasn't bad, the way back will be even easier because of the route we will be taking". I couldn't have been more wrong. The reason the way down was easy is because it was down-hill, down a very steep hill.















And after 3 miles of shoeing, that last hill seemed insurmountable to climb back up. Poor Jen was having difficulty with her asthma acting up. I learned that altitudes and cold air are actually bad for someone with asthma. Who knew? She was a trooper though, tougher than I would have been in the same situation. With her sense of humor in tact, and with her husband's encouragement she made it the last mile to the car. That was rough for both Elisabeth and I, I can't even imagine how hard it was for her. What a trooper!

(Pictures below: the left picture was taken during the summer, on the right Elisabeth is standing in the same spot mimicking her fishing stance. As you can see she is standing on the ice. )

Christmas Vacation part 2- A hike, a flat, and heavy snow

After a wild Christmas day, after a couple of days of rest, we were itching to get back up the mountain to do some good 'ol fashioned snow shoeing. This time it was just Elisabeth and I with the dogs in the Subaru. Thinking I was all too clever, I bought a set of used studded tires with rims for $75 on Craigslist. Well there is a reason they were only $75. I put the studded tires on the day before we left and kept a good eye on their performance. They seemed fine. So we made our way back to Clear Lake. Half way up, we stopped at Government Camp to use the restroom. When I got out I noticed one of our tires was a little low. So I put some air in it thinking we probably had a slow leak, after all the tire had been on for 2 days by now and it's just now showing some air loss. So I aired it back up and headed 15 miles up the mountain to Clear Lake road.

It was beautiful, and just like Christmas day, it snowed from beginning to end. We put on our shoes and started our 3 mile round trip hike (sound easy, doesn't it? You would think...). Taking our new Magellan GPS navigation... thingy (I don't really know what to call it) for direction we set off with our destination being Clear lake. The dogs LOVED it. They went nuts in the snow. Zena especially loved to bound and romp and dig her face in the snow. She went crazy. The first mile wasn't bad, it was down hill. The Second mile was really rough, because we were in 10 feet of really soft snow (not an exaggeration, we actually looked it up when we got back). Snow shoeing is not easy, especially in deep soft snow. We hiked in a single file line, trading off leaders every now and then. The dogs got smart, anytime we hit deep snow, they stayed behind the leader allowing him/her to blaze the trail. This was fine, except when they got too close and repeatedly stepped on the back of our SHOES!! Grrrrrr.

We made it to the lake, and began the last mile back. This was rough because it was the last mile and it was slightly up hill. We loved being outdoors and loved the beautiful snow accumulating on our beanies and jackets.

We arrived at the car to find an almost completely flat tire. Uh oh. The spare I had was not a studded tire, AND it was a space saver donut tire, not a good thing to use in the icy mountains. Luckily a couple miles down the mountain was a gas station, surely they would have air. If I could fill up the tire again, the leak was slow enough that I would have enough time to get to a tire repair shop at the bottom of the mountain. Well... the chevron didn't have air, it had a station labeled air, but no hose for air. Nuts! They did have a fix-a-flat spray can. So I used that, the can only had enough to fill the tire to 15 PSI, which is half of the 30 PSI needed to have a fully filled tire. That's okay, that would get me down the mountain the 15 miles to the place I used to fill the tire up in while coming up the mountain. Traffic was horrible, it took us 2 hours to go 15 miles. We spent A LOT of time at a dead standstill. With air still leaking and a almost flat tire to begin with, I was sweating it. I was in traffic with no shoulder, there was no way I could change a tire here. We limped into Government Camp and I filled the tire with air there. Whew! It took us another hour or so do get home, but the fix-a-flat and air combo did it's job. We made it safe and sound.

I had to shell out another $50 to replace that tire. Apparently the studs were loose and when I drove on them some wouldn't stay upright and they would actually be smashed sideways into the tire, one of them puncturing it. Good to know. When you buy studded tires, check to see if the studs are loose. Loose studs = bad. Lesson learned. And that's why there were so cheap to buy in the first place.

A Great Christmas Vacation- what were we thinking

So you wanna know what we did over Christmas vacation? One word... snow! We spent A LOT of time in the snow up on Mount Hood.

During thanksgiving we went snow shoeing at Clear lake with Will (Elisabeth's younger brother). We just got a taste of the fun snow shoeing can bring and we wanted MORE. Well Santa brought us snow shoes and poles for Christmas so on Christmas day we headed to the mountains with some friends Jason and Jennifer Lee. This is part one, this portion of our adventure we will entitle "what were we thinking?"

Christmas day snow adventure started great, we took the Durango with both Magnum and Zena along with some sleds and some leftovers from Christmas Eve dinner and the snow shoes. Jason and Jennifer were in their '80s Dodge Ram 4x4 diesel with their dogs Otis (a VERY sweet pit bull with a head bigger than Magnum's, but a body smaller than Zena's) and Winston (a very young Chow/Lab mix).

We began with some good 'ol fashioned sledding. It snowed on us from the minute we got up there to the very end of the night. It was really nice. So things were good... until Jason got the bright idea to try to take his Ram down a trail covered in snow. I, of course being the supportive friend I am, said: "Do it. If you get stuck, the Durango can get you out". What were we thinking. Jason started down the trail and within 20 yards was stuck, unable to reverse out. At this point he was still close enough that the Durango could pull him out with no problems. But (and here is the "what was I thinking" part) I suggested that he drive further into the trail to get a running head start in order to get out of the really heavy part he was in. Well... he listened to me (what was he thinking) and went further down the trail. After 5 minutes of back and forth he managed to get his Ram stuck in some pretty deep snow. The situation was worse. Because he continued into the trail at my encouragement, I had to drive the Durango into the trail in order to get him back out. Uh oh. I managed to get the Durango stuck in a matter of seconds. The situation was a lot worse. What were we thinking?!! Well, at least I had chains to put on the Durango in case of such an emergency.

But wait... the chains didn't fit my tires correctly. UH OH! So we did what any man would do. We tried to put the chains on anyway, using a McGyver-esque technique to secure the chains. But we were not McGyver - we were Josh and Jason. After a couple of failed attempts with the chains we started to panic. The situation was beyond bad. As daylight started to fade and the snow fell harder we continued to dig and rig in a hope the chains would stay on. God is good... a nice man happened by with some extra tire cables that fit the Durango. So in one attempt the Durango was out of harms way thanks to that man, and God. There was NO WAY we would risk getting the Durango stuck again. So we had to come up with another plan to get the Ram out.

We started with the same approach: get the cables on the Ram and we should be good. But the problem was that the Ram was in such heavy snow on the drivers side that it would have taken at least an hour to dig it out enough to put the cables on. The situation was bad for Jason's Ram. After several attempts with only the tires spinning he now had 4 large holes in the snow. Then the situation became dire. Jason had turned on the Ram in an attempt to warm the snow that was so deep it was touching the undercarriage of the Ram. But the diesel exhaust was getting to us while we tried to install the cables. So after a bit of whining from me, he turned off the vehicle. That put the nail in the coffin. As we began to dig out the snow under the Ram, we noticed it was really icy. In fact, it was basically a block of ice under the Ram. The heat from the engine had melted it just enough so that it froze again quickly. The truck was now high-centered on a block of ice and the front drivers side wheel wasn't even touching the snow. So with daylight almost gone, Jason shaking and turning blue because he was in jeans and a fleece all day laying in the snow, and the girls and dogs tired, cold and hungry we made the decision to leave the Ram overnight and return tomorrow with a winch and a prayer.

So we headed down the mountain in the Durango, Me, Elisabeth, Jason and Jennifer with their dogs in their laps in the back seat, and Magnum and Zena in the very back with all the stuff. On the way down as a way of apologizing, Jason and I bought our wives some hot coffee at a gas station 15 miles from the place Jason's Ram was stuck. While we were stopped we happened by a tow truck. With a quote that was half as much as anyone else he called, Jason decided to employ the tow truck. We drove the 15 miles back in REALLY heavy snowfall and in the dark with the tow truck following. As we headed back up, noticing the heavy snow fall I said a simple prayer: "God we could use a break from the snow for the next few minutes". God answered my silly little prayer. The snow all but completely stopped as we arrived at the trail. Within 30 minutes, the Ram was free! Of course to top off the evening, as the tow truck was backing out to leave, he accidentally ran into the back of the Ram. It gave us all a good laugh, even Jason.

Did we snow shoe? Elisabeth did for maybe 10 minutes. Did we have fun? Yes, but not the kind of fun you'd think. Did we learn a lot? Yes, Jason learned not to listen to me and listen to his better judgement, and I learned that I don't know what I am talking about most of the time when it comes to snow.

(picture: Above on the right- Jason and I trying to fit the cables on the Ram, notice the Durango in the top left just 100 yards away after we had gotten it out; above on the left, the drivers side of the Ram covered in snow up to the door jam, with Jen (Jason's wife with a snow shovel). The snow under the Ram was actually up against the frame and after a few times of starting the Ram and shutting it off, it turned to ice and the truck became high-centered; below- Jason shelling out the bling to pay the tow truck, just before the tow trucked backed into his Ram while leaving)