Making snow angels and burying herself in powder is a dream come true for this wolf. If you look real close, you can see her saliva frozen on her lips! Paradise to Josie Lynne for sure. Not so much to Nova Leigh and I, but we adjust. By the time we get to where we are fully embracing winter time hiking, it will most likely be spring again anyway.
I don't know why I self impose such pressure, but I always feel that the first hike of a year and the final hike of a year are extra special. They need to mean something more. They need to feel different and make a statement for me. The first hike of the year, which this one was, will set the tone for the entire year to come. So no pressure at all, right? How I debated which hike to do for my first of 2023! The stress I was feeling to get it right was immense. Pretty quickly I knew I was being drawn to something by Mt. Hood. But there are, of course, a lot of choices there. Finally I settled on going to a Lookout Tower. This is a tower I had been to once before, but probably 20 years ago! I wanted to snow hike up to it and climb the 30 foot tower to get to the cabin on top. That became the goal. Make it to the tower and climb to the catwalk; no matter what the snow conditions are. Just make it. I knew if I failed in this goal, my entire year could be tainted by defeat.
The day before the hike, there was a ton of snow being dumped on and around the mountain. More snow was being called for on the day of my hike as well. Part of me felt that I should shift gears at the last minute because I most likely wouldn't be able to even get my truck near enough to the tower to achieve my goal. But God was telling me to stay on course, so I kept the faith. It was a long drive down. In winter time the road that you would normally take to get to this tower from Hwy 35 is closed. That means your only way to attempt it is to go in through Dufur south of the Dalles. The roads were pretty decent until we hit ice near Dufur. Then as we continued, this turned to snow. As the snow got deeper and deeper, I remembered reading that this road is normally plowed in winter for several miles. But I needed to get up those mountain roads 18 miles to reach a parking area commonly used to then hike to the tower. After about 8-10 miles on snowy plowed roads, I reached a sign telling me that the road ahead would not be maintained in winter. Great, I thought, as the snow significantly deepened. I looked in my side mirrors and could see huge plumes of powder being shot up by my off road tires. Wow, that is impressive I thought as I wondered how long I could go before my undercarriage would start to plow the snow and make losing control of the truck easier in the deep powder. After a couple more miles I started to see some big trucks, driven by male drivers, give up and turn around. Apparently they were not comfortable continuing any further. I gulped and told the girls in the back seat that I needed to grow a larger pair of testicles for this drive. I kept telling myself that this drive would be the hardest part of my day and I could do it. I just needed to make it a few more miles. So I kept going while starting to look for places to safely ditch my truck on the side of the road if needed. If I could just get within 8-10 miles of the Lookout, I figured I could snowshoe that and back in the day if needed. Then it started to snow. This was not a light dusting. This was a pounder of a snow storm. Great, I thought. Just great.
After driving further and feeling rather more like a snake slithering up the hills trying not to lose control, I finally saw the parking area I needed to get to! I pulled in and prayed I would be able to get that truck out when we got back to it that night. I had 4wd and great tires, but no chains with me. I know, not the best of plans. But it's a thing with me, and I figured it wouldn't be the first time I could sleep in that Xterra in winter....and surely not the last. I got all my gear on while Josie was jumping up and down in excitement at all the snow surrounding us. She was in her element for sure. We hit the trail with the snow blowing harshly in our faces.
The skies were dark even though it was only in the afternoon. We felt like we were in a blizzard for sure. But the powder was perfect for snowshoeing. We were not sinking more than a few inches with each step and the snow was light so it didn't feel like wearing lead weights on my feet. With these great conditions I figured the day would be a breeze and for the most part it was. Of course, after several miles you start to feel those snowshoes and your snowshoeing muscles more than normal. This mode of transportation is definitely different than regular hiking. Part of me loves it and and part of me hates it if I am being honest. I had my gaiters on up to my knees and my boots were doing a great job keeping my feet warm and dry. I had my normal winter time 6 layers on my upper body, 2 lined layers on my lower, along with 2 stocking caps and one hood and a great pair of winter gloves. I had just bought a new pair of gloves rated to go down to minus 20 degrees after several hikes battling frost bite with my old pair. All seemed to be going well.
As we climbed higher and higher, I started to feel a little cold, but nothing too bad. I was sweating a fair amount from the exertion though and that always worries me when I get my base layers wet in temps below freezing. We just have to keep moving I told the girls. If we stop we will get too cold and not be able to warm up. So we only paused for photos and Josie's snow angels, but otherwise kept ourselves moving non-stop. Josie has also started to do this thing in the snow that Nova and I have to prepare for. I call it her superman snow jump. The first few times she did this, I ended up on my face each time. I have now learned to anticipate it and brace myself better. But she does this huge jump up high into the air like you would expect to see an arctic fox do before catching a rabbit in a hole. However, instead of pouncing down on her front feet, Josie stretches her arms out over her head and her legs out behind her and SPLATS on the snow in a huge belly flop. Then she does a whole body wiggle and jumps up to her feet to do it again and again. When I am attached to her and strapped into snowshoes, it is easy for her 60 pounds to pull me down. The first time she knocked me on my face in the snow, I came up cursing, but she thought I was down there to play with her and started pouncing on me. When your feet are strapped into big shoes, it is also not so easy to get back up off the ground I can tell you that. Especially with a wolf jumping on you! Eventually she had me laughing. She was just having so much fun. But now, I can see her body language when she is about to superman snow jump and I can brace so she doesn't take me down with her. But this does rather slow down our snow hiking! Again, Josie is doing her part to teach me to enjoy the little things and not be all about making it to the tower as the only goal of the day.
We climbed up to the plateau where I thought the tower was only to find trees there. Is the tower gone, I asked myself? Could it have burned down or been removed for some reason? How could I miss a 30 foot Lookout tower?? It must be a false summit. So I kept going farther across the ridge scanning back and forth looking for a tower that should stand out among the pines. As I crested another small ridge, I was sure to find my prize! But alas, there was no tower. I pulled the map out of my pocket to double check myself. I was sure I was in the right place. But the cold was starting to sink deeper into me and I was growing weary. I heard that all too familiar drill sergeant voice in my head tell me to keep going and that I was not about to call it quits. "I know, I know", I said out loud to no one in particular. Both girls looked at me. "We are almost there" I told them with more faith than I was feeling. My great faith from that morning had surely shriveled down to the size of that mustard seed! But after a few more steps, we saw something just ahead. I caught my breath in my throat.
She was the same beauty I remembered. We shuffled as quickly as possible up to the ladders and after tying the wolf to the bottom rails and taking off my snowshoes, Nova and I ran all the way up to the catwalk. I held my breath as I reached for that doorknob. It was unlocked!!!! Are you kidding me!!! I am so spending the night here tonight I thought as I almost cried huge tears of joy! I was sure it would be locked up tight. But then I took a look around and my heart sank into depths of despair. There was a sleeping bag on the bunk and a tiny bit of heat was coming from the wood stove in the corner. I stepped over to the stove to touch it and sure enough, it had been on many hours earlier. I looked down and saw a pair of slippers on the floor and a large white bucket half full of urine. UGH! Someone has been living here and maybe for some time from the looks of that half full bucket of urine! Suddenly I felt like Goldilocks and that the Bears were about to come home and find me intruding. Nova and I quickly exited the room, making sure we latched the door all the way before practically sliding all the way down those snowy stairs back to our wolf acting as lookout at the bottom.
We stood there for the longest time trying to figure out what to do. It was snowing hard and getting darker. By now it was about 4pm in the afternoon. We had maybe an hour of daylight left. I didn't know how long this person had been gone, but it felt like a long time based on the fire. Were they coming back? Surely they would not leave their sleeping bag. But if I left without knowing, I would always wonder. Oh, how I longed to spend the night. I had enough gear with me to easily do so and quite comfortably. I thought about restarting the fire and waiting in the warmth to see who came. But just as I was about to do so, both dogs started to quietly bark by my side. A solo cross country skier was approaching up the side. Turns out she had rented the tower for several days and was just coming home after having been out exploring trails. She was very nice and I did not mention seeing the urine. As we chatted in the cold snow beneath the tower I quickly ate my hot soup from my thermos; sharing it into the dog's bowls at the same time. I had to have my gloves off for probably 20 minutes while doing so and getting in and out of my pack and switching from snow shoes to ice spikes on my boots. My fingers (mostly my thumbs) grew intensely painful and red during that time. I know that feeling well. That is frost bite setting in. It always starts with my left thumb and then moves across quickly. Nova was shivering rather violently despite her thick coat and snood. While we chatted, and I tried to ignore my hands and Nova's shivers shoveling more hot soup down her, I learned that this older woman does a lot of hiking like myself. So I asked her one of my favorite questions. "What is your favorite hike?" She told me about another Mt. Hood hike that I had not yet done. That hike is going on my 2023 list for sure I thought to myself. But my fingers were getting so numb that I knew we had to get moving or we would be in trouble. My gloves were frozen solid and stiff. I jammed my fingers into them, but the pain was intense. It felt like my entire left thumb was being held in the open flames of a fire. I pulled my fingers down to curl them around my thumbs while still inside the gloves. That helped a little. As we left, Nova's face stated exactly what I was feeling!
We hiked out hard and fast. Hiking out without the snowshoes on and only wearing spikes meant I could go a lot faster. Since it was all a descent, I knew we needed to go fast to stay warm. So we were practically running. It got dark pretty quickly, but I refused to turn on a flashlight the entire way except to take one photo. Even by dark of night, Josie likes to lie in the snow if we pause at all!
Once we got back to the truck I found it engulfed in a cocoon of snow. We must have had 6-8 inches fall while we were out hiking those few hours. Even the tires seemed buried. I changed myself and Nova into dry gear and got that truck heater blowing full blast as quickly as possible. I put a thick fleece blanket over my lap and started the slow and arduous drive out on those unplowed roads. With the added snow, I was really rubbing the bottom of my truck now. A thick white fog had moved in and it was almost impossible to differentiate the white snowy road from the white fog all around in the dark. I did not enjoy any part of that drive, but I was loving the heater!
It took me almost 3 hours to get home from this hike due to conditions and I kept that heater blowing hard the whole way. I never took the blanket off my then sweaty lap until I pulled into my driveway. As I started to unload gear and dump it by the wood stove in my front room to dry out, I realized that I was not feeling well at all. I was burning hot to the point of feeling nauseous. I mean, I was really, really hot. I started to strip off all my layers thinking I had just overheated myself on the drive home in the truck. As I got down to my last base layer, I knew something was wrong. I must have developed a fever as this was a very unnatural heat. I went to my bathroom to retrieve a thermometer and took my temperature. Then I took it again and again to be sure. I was just registering 95 degrees. I was on the verge of hypothermia after 3 hours of warming! Man, I wished I knew what my temp was coming off the trail that night I thought! I am now adding a thermometer to my truck bag so I never have to wonder that again! This is not the first hike where I became so cold that I was convinced I was burning up and started stripping off all my clothes. At least this time I was home before I did it. Last time I was stripping in a snow/hail storm on a mountain. But that will be a story for another day.
What you may wonder though is what this hike means for 2023? How is this a good omen to start the year?? Well I say it was a great sign!! I tackled a fear of driving up unplowed, deep snowy back roads in my truck when others turned around. I made it to the lookout tower that was my goal for the day. I even got to go inside the tower, which I did not expect. So that was an added bonus. I learned about another great hike that I will do this year. I beat frost bite (even though my fingers and especially finger nails hurt for many hours that night). I apparently battled potentially significant hypothermia and won! I didn't die yet is what I am saying, so 2023 is a win win!! I can't wait to see what happens next!
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