That was my motto for this hike. I kept stopping along the way, oftentimes when we would get a glimpse of the forest and mountains off in the distance while still being in the trees where we were at. I would stop and say, "We are in the forest, on the mountain, in the snow. And we have it all to ourselves. Such a wonderful place to be!"
I would also occasionally comment on the "hush of the snow", as I call it. If you've never been on a mountain in the winter with the snow and absolutely no one else around, away from civilization... you just can't imagine the absolute silence. The complete absence of any sound whatsoever. It always amazes me, and I just have to stand still and take it in every now and then along the way.
| A few days ago, the girls and I got out for our first hike of the new year. We went to Bass Creek, one of our frequent close-by hiking places, but it was the girls' first time hiking this particular trail in the snow. Because of the snowy weather, after passing by one other hiker who was coming out near the beginning when we went in, we had the trail to ourselves on the way up. It snowed on the mountains and down in the valley all day long, so the cloud cover was really thick and heavy. But it was fresh snow, which is so much fun to be out in. Because it was snowing, the extended views were minimal, but the atmosphere was incredible. |  |
 | Bass Creek is one of my favorite places to hike in the snow because much of the time you are hiking through a hallway of trees on both sides that are loaded with snow, making it quite the winter wonderland! It never ceases to amaze me. For adults and kids alike, the mountains become a huge playground when it snows! Hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, snowboarding, making snowmen... there is so much to do in the mountains full of snow. |
| The girls can't resist eating snow anytime it is so fresh and in such abundance! I had to keep moving them along if we were going to have enough time to get to the dam and back out again before dark (4 miles round trip). |  |
 | A view of the creek below from a higher point of the trail, a little beneath the dam. The mountain streams are very low this time of year. As you can see here, much of it is iced and snowed over, but there is still a bit of water running which you can hear when in the near vicinity of it. |
| Icicles form on the tops of the rocks up high in the first part of the trail, revealing how the lower elevations change in temps enough to melt and re-freeze. You can see the snow coming down pretty good at this point. |  |
 | In the hallway of trees, the girls love to trigger "bugees". Not sure how one would spell it, but it's pronounced "boo-jeez". It's just a word we came up with to describe the huge amounts of snow in the trees suddenly letting go and coming down all at once. We watch them naturally occur at our house when the sun comes out after a big snowstorm. Anyway... the girls triggered them most of the way back down the trail, dumping tons of snow on themselves and having lots of fun! Also taking us longer than usual to get back down. But hey... we were there to have fun, weren't we? :) |
A little video clip of the girls triggering a bugee, in case you want to see one in action.
| Another sight we see all along the way... ... snowpeople built by nature. |  |
Well, the time to go home always comes too soon for us. It's not that we don't love being home, too (we do!)... but the mountains are just such an awesome place for us, that the time seems to pass much too quickly when we are out. But we will come again another day. :)
One additional note... In case anyone out there not familiar with winter hiking in the mountains gets concerned about our apparent lack of winter apparel for winter temps and snow... you would be amazed at the heat you produce while hiking, especially when hiking uphill. We do have plenty of winter coats and accessories, but we don't usually wear coats in the mountains because they are just too much when we are active. We dress in several non-cotton layers, so we can adjust as we need to. We usually start out with too much and have to remove layers and scarves and hats as we get going, because we quickly start to overheat. When we stop at our destination, we add more layers as needed. We have more than enough to stay warm out there for the varying conditions we run into. Just wanted to ease up any concerns any of you may have from seeing how we dress in the snow, as I know it looks a little odd. ;)
