Opening picture: snow on Franklin Ridge
I got to Multnomah Falls luxuriantly late, put on a few extra layers in the empty, windswept parking lot, and truffle shuffled up the icy paved switchbacks past all the familiar views.
At some point above Weisendanger I thought it started snowing, but it very well may have just been blowing off the overburdened trees. But clouds definitely did descend, and gave everything a surreal, dreamy quality.
I was ready for a wet crossing of Winter Creek, but it was running surprisingly low, and I rock hopped with no problem, except for maybe a little slippery ice. The snow started in earnest shortly thereafter, a few inches around 1200', then very quickly quite a bit more.
The only footprints I saw all day were from a small cat - maybe a bobcat? - following the trail up Franklin Ridge for a couple miles. I love that about hiking in the snow: seeing that I'm not just sharing the trail with fellow hikers.
I'd been vaguely thinking about heading all the way to Larch Mountain, and went a bit past the Oneonta junction, but the snow soon got deeper than I was comfortable dealing with without snow shoes, so I turned back and headed down. For some reason the trail down toward Oneonta was really sloppy: constantly crowded by overhanging branches and deep snow drifts. After a while it actually got sort of fun - ducking under burdened bows, trying to clear snow off branches with my trekking poles - but only sort of fun.
The snow stopped suddenly just before the upper crossing, then it was just easy going down to the 400. The Oneonta washout's in good condition, even if getting through it in the ice was a little interesting.
I got back to Multnomah Falls around 3:30, to thin but persistent crowds, and drove home in the sunset. I'm never going to get used to this sunset at 4:30 nonsense, but I beat the dark home all the same.
I remember this hike feeling a lot longer a few years ago, but I guess a lot of hikes feel shorter to me now. Sort of nice how that happens.
