Sunday, November 28, 2010
Snow shoes anyone?
Today we hiked another part of the PCT (pacific crest trail). We had to drive out past Carson and Stabler Hemlock about 20 minutes away from the house. Such a pretty drive. The snow got thicker and thicker the higher we drove, peoples roofs and cars were completely covered. We saw horses in their winter blankets and smoke rising from the chimneys on houses. This part of the trail we hiked today looked much different than the other part we explored a couple weeks ago, more than likely due to the fact that it was covered in snow! Ash and I agreed it was the most snow we'd ever seen. Some parts appeared 2-3 ft deep. We were told about this trail by a lovely woman who works at Angus' lodge. She has hiked all the trails in the region and this one came highly recommended. She told us at the top was the most spectacular vista in the area. It is a 4 mile hike up to it but unfortunately since it starts to get dark so early here (4:30pm) we only made it half way. No matter though, we still saw plenty of stunning scenery. This hike is a quiet one, with only the sound of running water in certain parts, and snow dripping off tree branches the rest of the time. The light reflects off the snow giving a very interesting blue quality to the light. The trees are huge to begin with but are made to look even larger when covered in snow. Everything looks and feels different, majestic, the stuff oil paintings are made of. You can see which direction you need to walk but the actual pathway was covered in snow so periodically along the edges you could see where other hikers had clipped ribbons and strings to branches to mark the trail. The only way to find the start of the trail was looking for an unmarked wooden bridge off the side of the road. We were unsure if we'd found the correct bridge but after we hiked in a ways we came to a stream intersecting the path that we had to ford across. We'd been told about this so we knew we had the right place. A ways in further was yet another stream but luckily the park rangers were nice enough to have built a small bridge over it. Initially Ash and I had bundled up in our heaviest cold weather gear but as we hiked along we started to get overheated, so off came the scarves, gloves, and hoods, jackets became unzipped and at one point ash was just down to a t-shirt and jeans. We would have continued to be warm but parts of us had gotten wet from stream crossing and melting snow so we eventually had to put our hats and jackets back on. When we realized our time was up we quickly ate the lunch we'd packed and trolloped back down the mountain. As we descended all I could think of was how incredibly small I felt. Most of the time I go through my life being a bit self centered but I really enjoy the times when it's all put into perspective for me. Being surrounded but trees 50 times taller than me and vast expanses of forest all around can really remind you of your insignificance in the scheme of things. I kind of feel the same way when I'm star gazing. So much out there that very few people actually take notice of. I continued to ponder life all the way back to the bridge. When we first arrived ash and i had played in the snow and made snow sculptures on the bridge railing, they were still there when we left. We plan on going back and giving ourselves more time to see that vista at the end of the trail.
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