Mt St Helens snowshoe 2/22/2014

6 miles  780' EG

Today we headed up to do some snowshoeing on Mt St Helens. 
We parked at Marble Mountain Sno-Park with plans of going to June Lake.

When we go to the Sno-park, there were a lot of snow-mobilers already there.  Surprisingly, we found a parking spot right in front of the TH.

getting started

 We started up the trail.  The trail was in great condition.  After a little while along the trail, we came to an opening in the trees to a nice snowfield.

 Continuing up the trail, we realized that it was just going to keep climbing.  It was a nice slope.  We came to a steeper section of trail.  The picture below doesn't do it justice.

a nice "little" hill 

At the top of the hill, we came to a group of four that seemed to be having some issues.  We noticed that a few of them had been post-holing (they did have snowshoes but were not using them for some reason).  We passed them by and eventually they caught up and passed us.  And then we came upon them again.  One of the girls had post-holed and her entire leg was swallowed up in the hole.  Cher saw her toss her poles into the bush in some sort of tantrum(at least that's what she looked like she was having).  As we passed them again, Cher asked " Dont you have snowshoes?" and the reply was "yeah, but we thought it would be easier to not use them".  After we got further away we couldnt help but laugh.  And at the same time, we were slightly annoyed ant the holes in the trail they made that we had to navigate around.

My little snowbunny

We passed a few people on the way up that had mentioned that the trail to the lake was pretty difficult due to the snow conditions, so we opted to just go up 244 and try to make it to the Loowit trail junction. 
About 1/4 mile from the Loowit trail, the hill got steeper and the snow got deeper, so we decided to turn around.

beautiful snowy trees and trail

Us at our turn around point

representing "Team Sparks"

We headed back to the lake trail junction and found a spot for lunch.  After starting to rehydrate our beans and ham and making up some hot cocoa, we noticed the little camp robbers (grey jays) had started to congregate nearby.

Cher enjoying some cocoa

hanging out and waiting

Jen enjoying her cocoa with a little something extra

come a little closer

"can I have some beans and ham?"

all warmed up

We spent about 40 minutes enjoying the birds and lunch.  Eventually the post-hole gang came down the lake trail with reports that the hill was impassible.  We wished them a good afternoon (they all had their snowshoes on at this point).

After a warm-up and re-energizing, we decided to get headed back to the car.
As we were heading down the trail, it started snowing.  We stopped to watch the flakes and noticed that the flakes were perfectly formed little shapes...like one would only see under a microscope(at lease thats what our impression was). 

perfect flakes

fun on the trail

peek-a-boo

We got back to the car at about 1 and got on the road. 
Our post-hike meal was burgers at Five guys Burger and Fries.  Their burgers never disappoint.

Smith Rock State Park 2/18/2014

PH Field Guide for this hike

EG: 1232'          5 miles

We left Portland early and headed east.  We were heading over Mt Hood at around 8am. The traffic was heavy and most of it was people headed to Timberline or Mt Hood Meadows.

Snowy trees on Mt Hood

I was glad to be just driving through.  We stopped at the Chevron just past Hwy 35 and then continued on.

We arrived at Smith Rock late morning, enjoyed the surrounding views and got started on the trail.

Us at the TH

The beauty we enjoyed the entire hike

The Parking area is up about 300' from the river, so you hike down a nice trail for about 0.5 miles.  There is a composting toilet before heading across the river.

After crossing the river, you can go left along the river trail, or continue forward up the Misery Ridge trail.  We went forward for the 1 mile trek up about 1000'.  There are a lot of switchbacks to ease some of the steepness of the trail.
About halfway up, there was a group of twenty-something year old guys that were taking a cigarette break.  Nothing better than enjoying some secondhand smoke while you are already having a hard time getting enough oxygen.

We made it to the top after about 30 minutes.  It was a nice view from the top.

a little snow reaming

look at the parking lot way down there

We took a few minutes to enjoy the views and then continued on.  A few yards down the trail, there is a spur trail off to the left where there is a bench to sit at and enjoy the views of the Cascades(if the clouds cooperate), there are also some large rocks to climb up even higher and get a 360 view.

beauty

old gnarly tree

Cher didnt have a desire to join me on the rock

The boys that were enjoying the cigarette break soon joined the area and had another smoke break(only this smoke was a little more skunky smelling)
.  After getting a contact high, we continued on the trail.

A little further down, there were some more rock formations to check out.  I had no idea that there would be so much cool stuff to check out up here.

Cool rock

Cher spots bunny

little bun-bun spotted

We went up a little higher on the other side of the large rock and found a really cool spot for lunch and to explore around a little more

Diego and I doing a little rock climbing before lunch

Black Butte and the Cascades

break time

nice views for lunch

Diego also enjoys a little lunch

a little post-lunch tom foolery

After a little lunch break, we went back down to the trail and enjoyed views of Monkey Face Rock

Monkey Face Rock and Crooked River

beautiful colors

After this point, the Misery Ridge trail continues down the other side back down to the river.  It is not as steep as the way up.

We found a cool hollowed out rock that we just had to stop to pose in.

Jen and Diego

Just Jen

Cher's turn

 The trail starts to level out as you come to the base of Monkey Face rock.  There was a little snow built up at the base of the rock.

love the colors

a cairn wall

amazing rock formations

a lone tree.  The geese were trying to chase away an intruder

The trail eventually meets up with the river trail again.  As we continued on the trail and were looking up at the massive rock walls that the trial follows, we noticed hundreds of mud nests that had been made in the crevasses of the rocks.  Im guessing they were swallows, but not sure.

As we came around the south side of Smith Rock, we noticed a lot more rock climbers in action.

rock climbers doing their thang

 We were almost back to the bridge and noticed another compost toilet.  We stopped and used the bathroom and watched the rock climbers for a bit before heading back up to the car.

I had read about a local restaurant that was supposed to be really good, so we decided to check it out for dinner.  It is called Terrebonne Depot Food and Drink and it was amazing!
They had everything from Tuna Poke, to Elk steak, to hamburgers.
We both chose the bacon cheese burger with Gorgonzola cheese.  We added an egg to it and asked for it to be as raw as possible. It was perfect!!

Bacon cheeseburger

We decided to head home through Redmond and Sister, instead of over Mt Hood again.

It was a great hike and we will be visiting again (both Smith Rock and Terrebonne Depot)