With perfect weather forecast for yesterday, I couldn't resist a trip to the Mountain. I headed over to White River West snopark to enjoy the sunshine and have some fun. Hwy 26 and Hwy 35 were as clear and dry as the roads in Portland. It was very smooth sailing. As soon as I stepped out of the car, I knew I wouldn't need fleece or a jacket. In fact, I really wished I'd worn shorts and a t-shirt. It was that warm. I looked around. There were two other cars in the huge lot. Gotta love weekdays; no crowds. I booted up the snowshoes, attached my round disc sled to my backpack and set off on my adventure.
The sun was blinding and the sky was blue; there wasn't a cloud in sight. After about a quarter of a mile, I spotted what I thought was the sledding pit I had read about. I treked up to the top of the ridge and took my first sled ride down. Wow! That was so much fun. Who knew this little $5 plastic disc would yield such thrills? I started out facing forward on each ride down, but the disc quickly spun me around so that I ended up sledding down backwards most of the time. I kept my snowshoes on because I knew I'd need them to trek back up the ridge, but it worked out great because the long tails of my shoes just dragged behind me in the snow. It's a pretty fast ride down if you're willing to do the work climbing back up to the top. It was worth the effort. As my friends back in Texas would say, "YEEHAW"!
I snowshoed along the river and ended up within almost touching distance of Mt. Hood. I saw lots of ski and snowshoe tracks all around, but very few people.
The river, although shallow, was rushing pretty good if you got down close enough to see it.
Even though the powerful sun was making quick work of melting the top layers of snow, there was so much snow that it was safe to go right down along the river on snowhoes or skis.
From the ridge above the sledding pit, the view was spectacular.
If you get free time on a weekday when the weather is cooperating, I highly recommend it. | 
