Snow presents its own set of challenges for adventuring, but there are benefits too. One of the main ones for me is that you can walk on top of thick brush and in some cases boulder fields that would otherwise bar you from certain places in warmer weather. Today, we put this into practice with a snowshoe up White River on Mt Hood. After we cleared the throng of sledding kids and their families close to the parking lot, we enjoyed mostly solitude and expanding views on our way up past treeline. We followed other snowshoe and ski tracks along a babbling brook until they dropped off or split away one by one, and then broke our own trail up a steep ridge with formidable drops on either side to a great view of our local peak.
I was excited to see what I thought was a mountain lion track in a patch of mud, but later compared a photo to tracks online and ultimately concluded that it was probably a large dog (or even more unlikely, a grey wolf). I'm still hoping to cross paths with one of these big cats someday.
A mere two or three ravines over, hundreds of people were enjoying the ski slopes and accommodations at Timberline Lodge. But the landscape hid them from us and the deep snow dampened out any sound we might have heard. For a brief moment in time, it was like we had the mountain to ourselves.