Snowshoeing Pocket Creek (Mt. Hood)
One of the things that I love most about living in Vancouver (Washington not BC) is that I can drive 1.5 hours west and be on the coast, or I can drive an hour east and be snowshoeing in the mountains. This is exactly what we did on March 22nd 2008 when we drove to Mt Hood and went snowshoeing on the Pocket Creek trail. The weather was great, it was warm and sunny. There was lots of snow on the ground and none in the tree tops. I said that we went snowshoeing, but this is not completely accurate. I went snowshoeing while Kim and Wen-Li went cross country skiing. This was Kim’s first time on X-Country skis, she did great, they had to keep stopping so that I could catch up with them. This was a great trail for Kim to tryout the X-Country skis, the trail is flat and had seen enough use that there was a nice track for her to follow. Not to mention the fact that the snow pack had about an inch of fluff on top of a very solid base.
About half way through the trail we stopped for lunch. I took off my snow shoes and used them to dig a nice bench seat and table for me to cook lunch. While lunch was cooking Kim played around on her skis. After lunch we got back to the trail. Towards the end of the trail we came upon an open meadow, the sun was so bright reflecting off the snow that it was difficult to see, even with dark sun glasses. By the time we reached the end of the trail my feet were killing me and I didn’t feel like making a loop. So we decided to follow the highway back to the car. This cut about a mile off the return trip and it was easier walking for me. The snow banks along the side of the road were more than 10 feet high so Kim and Wen-Li got on top of the bank and skied back to the car.
This is an awesome trail for X-Country skiing but it is a bit boring for snowshoeing (too flat). I highly recommend this trail, but I you better hurry if you want to try it out this year, the snow is melting fast.
Maps
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