Its time for snowshoeing! Yesterday Cody and I went to Marble Mountain Sno Park with our friend Dan. The park has a series of trails that wrap around the base of Mt. St. Helens. On a beautiful sunny day like yesterday at 2,700 ft elevation we were join by snow mobiles and cross country skiers. The snow mobiles had their own set of tracks separate from the snowshoe and skier tracks. We did the Marble Mountain Loop Trail with an accidental 1 mile of the Pine Martin Ski Trail complements of Cody. The snow was so dry that snowballs simply would not pack.
This was our very first time snowshoeing and we learned some important lessons. 1.) Buy a sno park permit ahead of time 2.) Bring the water bottle with you on the hike 3.) Bring a compass 4.) Cody really has no idea where he is 5.) It is impossible to walk backwards in snowshoes as demonstrated by Dan. 6.) Bring a Camera!
Snowshoeing is an inexpensive way to spend a day in the snow. We rented snowshoes from REI and it was $20 a pair for the weekend. If you plan to go more than 5 time during the winter buying the shoes is the way to go. After covering our first 4 miles in snowshoes we are ready to dig in a make a routine of snowshoeing. Mount Hood and Mount Rainer all have tracks for snowshoeing and are on our list to do.
