Up to Mirror Lake

 

 

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to do at least one hike a month.  I love hiking but I don't get to go as often as I like.  It is not that there aren't ample places to go hiking where I live, in fact quite the opposite.  There are many, many options in every possible direction.  Life just sort of gets in the way. So I am trying to make a concerted effort this year to go hiking more. 

Hiking tends to be a summer activity;  even spring and fall are reasonable times to go hiking. Winter is the hardest time with it being cold and dark and wet.  But since this was my New Year's resolution and not my Summer Solstice resolution I have to figure out what to do in the winter.  The solution was snowshoeing.  Hiking is walking.  Snowshoeing is walking in the snow. 

Today my friend Rosina and I went snowshoeing/hiking.  And since to go snowshoeing you need snow, we headed to the mountain.  Earlier this week I looked at several different trail options for us to chose from.  I haven't gone snowshoeing in a while and this was Rosina's first experience so I chose a hike that was listed as an easy family and dog-friendly 3 mile hike that had minimal elevation gain.  That hike was up to Mirror Lake.

First thing that we had to do was get to the trailhead.  In the summer there is a turn out on the road at the trailhead to Mirror Lake where you can park and just head up the trail. However, in the winter the roads on Mt. Hood are plowed and the snow is pushed to the shoulders making the turn out non-existant.  So to get to the trailhead in the winter, you park at the west Ski Bowl parking  lot approximately 3/4 up the road from the trailhead and walk on the snow bank four feet above the highway.  This is a bit harrowing as on one side you have a four foot drop and a busy highway on one side of you and a steep embankment that dropped about 20 feet to a river. 

Excited and blissfully unaware of what was to come.

 

Rosina feeling very Bavarian.

 

We made it to the trailhead, strapped on our snowshoes and headed up.  Now the thing about the snow shoes I have is that they are kind of old school and not fancy in any way.  They are plastic and   slightly resemble the old school tennis racket type snowshoes. But here's the thing, they worked. 

The trail to Mirror lake was well used.  We encountered a lot of people on the trail and the great thing about that was that the trail was well packed.  If you stepped off the three foot wide trail, however, you are likely to find yourself up to your knee and sometimes hip in snow.  Also I would hate to see what trails.com thinks that a moderate trail is or considers a trail with moderate elevation gain.  The Hike up to Mirror Lake, which is between 1-1 1/2 miles is all up.  Because the trail was so packed and there was really no need for the snowshoes we took them off and just started hiking.  Despite huffing and puffing and progressively removing layers as we slowly ascended we did eventually make it to Mirror Lake. 

 

We were very happy to see a sign indicating that
we were at the lake, we just had to
hug the tree that carried the message.

At the goal, Mirror Lake

We stayed at the lake for several minutes before heading back down, which involved a lot less huffing and puffing and more laughing and smiles. 

Look at this tree. You can't not take a picture sitting in it.

Have to stay hydrated.

It's just so hard to resist when there is a huge snow bank
and you are wearing waterproof clothes.

 

One good thing about trails that are hike in and back is that you get to experience the view of two different trails. The uphill trail you get to enjoy the view of the trail itself and the downhill you get to enjoy the view of the surrounding areas. And the surrounding areas of the Mirror Lake trail are beautiful covered in snow and I hope to see it not covered in snow this summer too. Next time I will be more prepared mentally for the "minimal elevation gain."