Since New Years Eve fell on a Friday, I had Monday off work!
I know, right? Not a bad start to the New Year… And doubly-so, since the upcoming Friday was a day off too… so three day work week! Absolutely great start to the year!
Okay, enough bragging. I had Monday off.
I figured… Well, I was feeling a bit lazy, and didn’t quite want to deal with the adventure of icy / snowy roads and tire chains. So Mt. Hood was out. And if going East, into the mountains, wasn’t really feeling like a good option… why not a return visit to the beach, hmm?
Well, it turns out that one reason I could cite is the tides – a reason that I learned when I looked down from the staircase at Cannon Beach, straight into the foaming Pacific Ocean. Turns out, I’d timed it just right so that I’d arrived exactly at high tide… strangely, not something that I think I’ve ever seen at Cannon before.
I’m an intrepid adventurer though! No “high tide”, or “lack of beach”, silliness is going to stop me! I forged my way around, hiking over dunes and through the beach grass, making my way down the beach and into a singularly glorious landscape or churning waves and dispersed sunlight.
I walked for ages – I didn’t really track how far, or how long, I was wandering. I stopped in a nice copse of trees for lunch, and rested when I felt tired. I’d brought snacks, water, and warm layers… And since I’d started at high tide, I knew there wasn’t a risk of getting trapped anywhere since the only direction the surf was going was away from me.
It was lovely. Relaxing, quiet, and exactly as calm as I was hoping for on my last day before re-starting the trudge of work.
On my walk, I even found a few ocean-based treasures!
Jaw-dropping views not included, I found: – A really cute little beach toy, washed up on shore – A child’s bike helmet, now home to a colony of brightly colored mussels – A huge hunk of whale blubber!
Yeah, you read that last one right. Whale blubber! It wobbled!
A few days previous, a whale carcass had washed up ashore a few miles down the coast… I hadn’t really thought about it, but that’s the best explanation I could think up for what I found. It’s big, wobbly, and tons of seagulls were feasting on it…
As the sun dipped low, I made my way back to the car and toward the drive home. Beautiful snow-covered trees kept watch as a drove, and a glorious dinner of artichoke, steak, and tortellini awaited me back home…
I started this post out by just creating a list of all the adventures that I went on in 2021. But… I realized pretty quickly that wasn’t particularly interesting – While it was informative, it was pretty dry, and the list didn’t really capture the feeling of the year.
Instead, I think I’ll just post my favorite pictures, along with a quick summary of the sort of the major adventures of the year:
The winter brought lots of backpacking and snow hiking – It’s still strange to me how much I’ve grown to know Oregon in the last year and a half… or, more accurately, how little of Oregon I really met in the preceding four years.
I visited friends in Sacramento in the spring; had amazing catch-up time, and saw some stunning views of Lake Tahoe
In the late spring, I visited one of the most photographed lakes in the Pacific North West – Colchuck Lake! I even summitted Asgard’s Pass with a friend… though the blood-price for that trip was steep. I injured my knee again, which put me out of hiking condition for nearly two months afterward.
The summer saw the death of my Grandmother, a blow to the entire family that we’ll never truly move on from. I was brought unexpectedly face-to-face with just how much of my personality came from her. Her passing brought an unexpected gift, though, in the form of nearly two weeks visiting family and friends back in New England.
The early fall brought my first dedicated rock climbing trip in quite some time – along with summitting what is probably the most iconic climbing route I’ve ever done. Devil’s Tower, in the bag!
The late fall brought friendship and comradery in amounts I haven’t seen in years. A backpacking trip with friends, and a huge event in my friend group – My friend Dillon’s bachelor party, and my role as best man in his wedding!
The winter is still coming in to Oregon, but the end of 2021 brought the return of beautifully snowy conditions up on Mt. Hood, and a reminder of just how glorious the Oregon Coast really can be…
**As always, if anyone would like a copy of any of these photos, please let me know. I have many of them already printed, but can always re-print anything that anyone would like.
After my friend Mike headed out, I went up to the mountain!
The storm hadn’t fully receded yet, but it had definitely calmed down quite a bit. And, more importantly, traffic was pretty much non-existant. I mean, in comparison to the usual traffic on this road, that is. For some reason, the drive to Mt. Hood just… it just takes so much longer than it logically should. I mean, it’s 70 miles. Mostly on highways. Why does it take 2 hours???
Anyways. Drive looked good, I had newly waxed cross country skiis, and I was feeling energetic after having some good socialization time. Tossed the gear in the car, filled my coffee thermos with some hot drink, and headed into the blizzard!
Now I know what you’re thinking.
“Ben! How could you take pictures while driving in the snow???”
“Well, other-Ben, As you can see there’s quite a bit of space between me and the next car… that’s because traffic was moving at approximately 20mph, and had pretty frequent stops. Thankfully this was only for a short distance, but those stops gave me just enough time to snap a picture while waiting to make sure the car in front of me didn’t backslide into my sweet snow-stang”
Yeah. The drive was… not as bad as it could have been, thankfully. But it was still slow once we got to the snow.
Thankfully, traffic petered out pretty quickly after one initial slowdown, and I was able to make it to the trailhead without much difficulty. I should clarify – I didn’t go to the originally-planned trailhead.
See, I love Elk Meadows, so that was my original plan. I had my hiking ski boots on (ski boots that are crampon compatible, and comfortable for ascending in), crampons, and everything ready for some vertical movement… but the roads and conditions were getting pretty bad as I passed the pullout for the Timberline Lodge. I probably could have made it, but I wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous or risky today.
Instead, I stopped at Trillium Lake – usually jam-packed with people, but thanks to the snow it was only packed. I was able to find a pretty safe parking spot without much difficulty, geared up, and headed in!
The trail was beautiful and fun – Deep snow, clear going, and nicely downhill pretty much the whole way.
Then I made a mistake.
I went off-trail, excited that I had newly-waxed skis that I thought could take me anywhere. And they could! Anywhere that was downhill.
When I hit a river and decided to turn back, I learned the mistake I’d made. Remember how I mentioned that the skis were newly-waxed? Well… the folks that had waxed them put a nice, thick layer on… just like you’d do for downhill skis. But Cross Country skis have little scales on the bottom to grip the snow, giving you traction when you push off. Scales that are small, and easily covered by a thick layer of wax…
Going into the adventure, I hadn’t noticed that the scales were covered up. Downhill I’d just glided beautifully, no issue and no hassle.
When I tried to climb back uphill though, I was stuck. I stepped forward, and the ski slid backward. I actually made negative progress for a little while.
I tried taking the skis off and just hiking out. No dice – the snow was 3+ ft deep, not something I could crawl through.
I tried going sideways. No dice – the trees were thick, and I didn’t quite have the room to manouver.
I legitimately got scared for a while – I had the safety gear to be okay, of course, and even call for help if absolutely necessary… but I really didn’t want to have to send up a satellite beacon because my skis were slippery.
After quite a bit of sliding and falling and being frustrated (okay, maybe like 20min, max) I was able to struggle my way out of the low-ground. It was mostly a lot of creative switchbacks, using poles and trees for leverage, and more pizza-walking than I ever expected to do on a pair of cross country skis.
With my escape made, I seriously considered just turning back and heading home. I was tired, and had walked quite a bit in the last few days… and after nearly getting stuck in the deep powder, you can’t blame me for wanting a bit of an escape from my escape into the woods, right?
So I rested a bit, had a bite to eat, and drank some water from my unfrozen water bottle. I even chatted with some other skiers who, ironically, were having the opposite problem than I was! Their skis were sticking quite a bit on the heavy snow, and they were having just as rough of a time making headway as I was.
With my spirits buoyed by the snacks, and knowing I wasn’t along in my struggles, I forged onward. Instead of turning around, I stuck to the groomed trail for the rest of the trek – gliding pretty easily, though still being quite frustrated every so often by the backsliding that my skis were doing.
After a while though, it seems like the thickest part of the wax rubbed off enough that I could almost get traction! This gave me enough speed to make it all the way to the lake, where I got some… well, not views, really. but I did see the lake! Sort of.
Since there weren’t really any views, and the lake was completely exposed to the driving snow and biting wind, I headed back into tree cover. Ate a quick bite of lunch in a conveniently placed shelter, and took the chance to relax and enjoy the sheer simple quiet that fresh falling snow gives.
I think that’s one of my favorite parts about the winter. The simple quiet of the world… It was cold, sure, but I had the right gear to keep myself warm. And in that simple comfort, the entire world seemed completely still and utterly serene… not a single sound aside from those I made myself.
I rested a while, and even took the chance to patch up some holes in my snow pants, since I was warm enough without them. But daylight waits for no one, not even as intrepid an adventurer as I am, so I did have a timeline to keep. I ate a few more slices of brie, rearmored myself in the snow layers, packed the warmth layers into my backpack, and headed back toward the car.
I’ll admit – I was worried about the way back. My skis were getting a bit better traction, sure, but it still wasn’t optimal… and if you recall, the route from the car was mostly downhill. I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to get enough traction to get up the trail easily.
In the end, my concern was well founded. My skis didn’t cut it, but that’s where having backup plans come into play – I just took them off and hiked out in my boots. No hassle, no mess, and no forging through deep snow, thanks to the groomed trail. Soon enough, I was back to the car and warming myself up for the long trafficy slog home…
