Day Hike In Big Bear

It was Friday night as I looked out the window and realized it had finally stopped snowing… 14 hours after it had started. Richard and I were so excited to get up the next morning and start blazing the first serious snow trail either of us had ever tackled. When morning came, we put on what we had for winter hiking, which is still not everything we need but we weren’t about to let that stop us. We threw a few snacks in our Flash 18 Packs, grabbed our trekking poles and headed out into the sunshine.  The trail we took heads down our mountain and follows a small river for a bit before dead ending, forcing you to turn around and go back, but we knew with as much snow as we got and without any snowshoes or crampons going all the way down was dangerous.  But we hiked to the point just before the trail turns and heads down.  There is an amazing vista that is brand new every day you see it because the woods are constantly changing and this day was no different.  We were out after the sun had come back but before the snow had fallen off the trees which gave everything an almost jeweled look.  It was really amazing to get to watch the entire process of snow, from the first few flakes all the way to beaten down paths and unladen trees.  It is so amazing how the forest changes every day and it is different.  I feel like I just want to stop working and watch it constantly as it changes.

Hiking in snow is so much fun!  Post holing, the act of blazing through deep snow without the aid of a snowshoe, is less fun.  But after months of desert hiking and years of Deciduous forests, I was just so happy to be out in the piney woods that I love again, I could have been drowning in snow, I think I’d still have had a smile on my face.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the East coast forests, but I was born with Pine tar on my veins. :p  Though this experience proved to me that I really want snowshoes.  Anyone have a good suggestion on a brand?

 

About these ads