It’s been a while since I’ve done a friend-hike up the White River Glacier… I think this is becoming a lovely tradition for my friend Ben and I, though. Even if it’s not super frequent, it’s lovely and a great chance to get out of town for a short adventure.
See, we work together. More accurately, we work in the same building but in different groups. Same department… but we don’t have any regular overlap. So we don’t get to chat in the office that often, and stories and ideas and thoughts always build up.
By the time we finally get a hike in, we basically just talk for seven hours straight about almost literally everything. Like, I legitimately have a whole page of notes about work ideas we had… and we didn’t talk about work the whole time (thankfully!). It’s lovely to decompress, and get to blather with someone else who understands on multiple levels.
So… yeah.
Breakfast at Best Baguette (yep, it’s accurate. They’re that good). Then a drive to Mt. Hood through the snowbound Portland (you thought Wilsonville was hit by the storm?) A hike up the glacier, to the lovely little spot that I camp (for lunch, don’t’cha’know) And finally, a gloriously relaxed and well-tired drive back into town.
Like… really cold. I love it, but it’s definitely cold. The rime ice isn’t nearly as long as some crazy places I’ve seen, but… man, it’s definitely there.
It’s so gorgeous, and I’m having such an amazing time reading up here, on top of the world… in the mist… with the freezing cold pulling away any stress and warmth I have in my body…
Earlier in the day, I met up with my friend Jess and made the long drive down to Mt. Bachelor – she was going to spend the day skiing, and I’d spend the day snowshoeing up the nearby Tumalo Mountain. A nice double-header, if I do say so myself, and a great chance to actually do a non-solo adventure for the first time in… yeah I wasn’t going to think about how long it’d been since I’d done a non-solo adventure.
We drove, and it was absolutely lovely. A bit of a change of pace, driving her truck through the snow, but I definitely appreciated not having to stop to put the chains on for the snowy passes, and having an active DJ for the drive was definitely an extra cherry on top. Not that we really stayed quiet to listen to music, mind you, but… hey, having the option was nice, you know?
After dropping Jess off to ski, I headed into the woods on my own adventure. The hike was… interesting, to say the least. Now, I don’t usually talk about the hiking itself, because… hiking… but this time was interesting. The first 1/4 mile took me nearly 40min, by my watch, but then the next nearly 2 miles flew by in… maybe a bit over an hour?
Strange, and I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been tracking my steps. Maybe getting used to the snowshoes? I didn’t use snowshoes for the first few hundred feet, so… maybe they made more of a difference than I thought? Who knows. All I know is that, soon enough, I found myself looking up at a beautiful summit peak.
I summitted, I relaxed, and I had some snacks.
I didn’t drink water, since it had frozen solid, but I did take the chance to make some good progress on my book, which was nice. I let myself cool down, enjoying the views and watching the steam seep off my body… even through the jacket that I was wearing.
It was lovely.
It was cold, and… surprisingly quiet, truth be told. The parking lot had been full – absolutely slammed – but I hadn’t seen a single person on my walk up. At the summit I saw four or five people total… but interestingly, none of the folks that I’d spoken to at the parking lot. They’d all said that they were heading upward… so I’m not quite sure where they all went. Maybe a different trail, and they were just that much faster than me? Or… was I that much faster than them?
No matter. I got cold, I got thirsty, and I got bored.
I turned around, and hiked down.
My timing on the return was impeccable. I got to the car just in time to check my phone and see a text from Jess that she’d finished up her runs for the day. I removed my anti-snow-armor, revved up the doom-truck, and we headed off into the sunset of our evening.
Amazing BBQ (Ribs, pulled pork, brisket, just so much) led to a warm AirBnB full of reading and hot baths. Some fancy wine, and a glorious night in after a perfectly cold day in the snow.
