I finally tried Snowshoeing! And, it was glorious. Now I’m addicted. The extraordinarily spontaneous Talla Hamalainen posted some pictures of snowshoeing on a Saturday. On Sunday morning I texted her, “Looks like fun. I’m jealous.” She texted right back, “Wanna go play in the snow today.” I immediately responded, “Yes. Are we skiing or snowshoeing?” She wasn’t sure so I packed both and headed straight to the Hamalainen/Kanable Compound.

After finding enough snowshoe rentals for the entire Hamalainen Crew, we headed to Glacier View Sno Park. I have been going to Skibowl my entire life and I never even noticed there was a parking lot across the street. I guess it’s that I’m so excited to go skiing I’m not very observant at that point. Plus, super bonus, I got to ride in Talla’s brand new Exploder. It’s super nice, and I’m more than a little envious.

The parking lot was snowy, so we put our snowshoes on right as we got out of the car. I had never even unzipped the bag they came in, so I had to figure mine out a bit. They were super easy. If you’re going to buy them you should get the Costco ones. They are made for simplicity. I adore them.

We walked to the trailhead and started our snowshoe hike. The girls were super stoked when we first started. They were running around like crazy people and jumping into and out of the snow. We walked right to Enid Lake, which is awesome in the snow. It’s not a stupid anti-climatic swamp at all. Then we continued on the Glacier View Trail. It was cold and snowy and just downright gorgeous. Snowshoeing is super different than hiking. It is way more cardio, first of all. It’s also much much easier for me to injure my back. I am so clumsy and I step on my own snowshoes a lot. It also doesn’t work quite the way you would expect it to. You sink quite a bit despite the snowshoes. You also slide around and can roll a fresh ankle pretty easily. It works totally different muscles too, muscles I’ve never felt before.

On this first trip, I was hiking with a 6 year old, which was a perfect way to get it all figured out, a nice steady pace. We did a total of 3 miles and it took us a very very long time. We hiked Glacier View until it hit Annie’s junction trail and then took that to Wally’s trail which took us to Government Camp. We wore our snowshoes all the way to the door of Mt. Hood Brewing where we enjoyed warm drinks and soup. Then we headed back.

The trek back was shorter; we took a different route. Unfortunately, it was a little too much for for the kiddo. Oh, there were tears and yelling and snowshoes thrown, but Talla handled it like a champ.  I adore my friends’ kids and I’ve seen every single one of them break down at some point. It doesn’t make me love them any less. They are my sweet, adventurous girls. There was a lot of laughter and I found a new passion. Thanks for that Hamalainen Crew!