For better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. My weekly hiking is like a wedding vow. This was my first hike in 2024 and the beginning of my 5th consecutive year of weekly hiking. Since 2024 is also going to see me married for 28 years....yes, to the same man.....I have some experience with endurance, perseverance and sacrifice. It has taken all these same traits to hike a minimum of once a week, year round, for this long. My body is worn down, but surely also in the best shape of my life; which is a strange sensation to be both of these things at the same time.
As much as I would like to say that this first hike of 2024 was all full of good things, it was unfortunately not. In fact this was one of those hikes bringing in the vows for the worse and in total sickness which would require complete endurance, perseverance and sacrifice. My husband had gone down super sick two days before the hike. The kind of sick where he couldn't get out of bed for an entire day. For a man who never gets sick and has the constitution of an ox, this was a bad omen for me. But ever one to have to prove that I am better and stronger, I vowed this sickness would not push me to lay around in bed like that. I always say I can sleep when I am dead. As I felt the illness begin to sweep over me the day before my hike, while I was at work, I ignored it. But when I awoke on hiking morning after a terrible night, I could no longer ignore the virus that had clearly taken hold of me. "Fine, come with me then" I told the virus intent on killing me and we headed down toward Mt. Hood once again.
The drive there was worse than I expected with roads still needing to be plowed and icy shaded corners everywhere. Temperatures on the mountain today were barely going to hit 32 degrees and we still had a strong wind blowing. There was a wicked storm expected to blow in tonight and over the next week dumping upwards of 5 feet of snow. So today was our chance to slip in there yet again. I parked along the highway on the East side of the mountain about 30 miles south of the town of Hood River. I was exhausted before I even got started. In fact, I really wanted to just stay in my truck and take a nap. My bones felt as if they could not even move, as though the very marrow had turned to dust. But move they must, and I forced myself to slowly strap on all my gear in the ritual that has become second nature.
The girls were feeling fine and anxious to jump around in the snow. Since I was feeling more like a rag doll than a human, I begged them to take it easy on me today. Being that we are about equal in weight, I knew that they were going to really pull me around if they didn't give me some grace for being sick on this one. Since the outhouse was a ways away from where we parked, we all just piled in to share it. I can tell you that it is not a lot of fun to share an outhouse with one dog, let alone a curious wolf and a bunch of gear. But once we completed that challenge, we hit the trail....which was really an old forest service road.
The beauty of starting on a forest service road for today's loop hike was that the trail would be easy to find in the snow. I would not need to worry about route finding, which was a good thing since my brain was not switched on for much of anything today. As we climbed higher up the road, we crossed a river that we would end up playing with for most of the rest of the day. We crossed back and forth across this river and its many tributaries many times throughout the day. I felt as if we were almost constantly hearing running water as hiked, which was a pleasure to my senses and helped the girls stay hydrated.
It was snowing gently as we hiked this new trail system to us. This is a popular snow park, but there was only one other truck at the trailhead today. We seemed to virtually have it to ourselves. What I appreciated about these trails, was that I read they are not groomed for skiers. Perfect for myself and the girls. Once again this week, I had my snowshoes strapped to my pack, but was able to hike in just my boots with ice spikes. As I struggled to motivate myself to keep moving one boot in front of the other, Josie was stopping to catch snow flakes on her tongue and just stare into the darkening sky. Her hair was frizzing out due to the humidity changes, which made me laugh at her.
We were a couple of miles in with snow falling more heavily on our heads and the winds pulling at our bodies, when I realized I still had not put gloves on, was not fully zipped up in all my layers and was strangely warm. I knew from experience that this should not be the case. I pulled my thermometer out of my side pocket and found that I was 2 degrees above normal, instead of the typical hypothermic readings. "Well, guess I am running a fever." I said absently out loud to the girls not expecting a response. But my mind wondered how hot I really was considering the current conditions. The girls were enjoying our explorations of the snowy road and were hoping I was pulling out treats with my thermometer.
As we continued gaining in elevation, I couldn't help but notice that there were bunny tracks in the snow absolutely everywhere. In fact, I have never seen so many rabbit tracks in one place on any hike, ever. They constantly criss-crossed back and forth across the forest service road. Some were huge and some were tiny. But bunnies they all were. What was interesting is that I never once saw any predator tracks following them, which is perhaps why they were so prolific. Either that or there was some sort of winter bunny convention happening up here that I was unaware of. Josie on the other hand, was very aware of all the tracks and kept cross-crossing the trail herself to smell them, jerking me with her each time. At times I felt more like a ping-pong ball than hiker.
I was aware that the chill in the air was becoming more severe and went ahead and pulled Nova's first snood of 2024 out for her. This year, we had a new theme. We were going to be taking the bull by the horns!
As we crested the highest point of the day, I was exhausted. I was breathing hard, my throat was on fire and actually felt as if it might be bleeding from the rawness. I was weary beyond description and truly only wanted to curl up under a tree in the snow to take a nap. But the girls knew that we had a trail loop to conquer and continued to pull me ever forward. They wanted to explore every meadow, ravine and creek. We should have had beautiful views of Mt. Hood's peak opening up, but the dark snow filled clouds choked the sky instead.
As we lost a bit of elevation, we came to a junction which was where we were to turn off the forest roads to make a loop back to the truck. I did consult with my map while standing at the sign to make sure. The problem was that the sign at the junction reported there were 3 bridges out ahead of us. So my options were to make a much larger and longer loop, return the way we had come, or go for it anyway and make a new plan at each of the 3 bridges. Since we were taking the bull by the horns, and I did not have the energy to make this a longer snow hike, we turned to go the way we had planned, bridges or not.
Now that we were no longer on wide forest service roads, the trail seemed to instantly close in on us, almost intent on swallowing us up in the whiteness. Instead of making me feel in any sort of danger though, the narrowed trail felt as if we were coming home. It seemed almost warmer and more secure as the trees brushed against us as we hiked. Moving from the wide places, to this less traveled path was like a breath of warm air moving over us and it renewed my strength and I could feel excitement stirring up inside me. What I did know though, was that we were clearly going to need to see some blue blazes to mark the way soon so we wouldn't get lost in the snowy gaps between trees. Luckily we started to spot some immediately.
My body might have been withering, but my eyes could still appreciate the beauty and peace surrounding us. Whereas on the forest service road, there were quite a few footprints we had been following, on this trail there seemed to have only been two people who hiked this way in the last few days. Their prints were mostly filled in, but we could still appreciate that someone had moved through here. I followed those tracks along with the blue blazes so my mind could just stay switched off and in recovery mode. We were still seeing lots of rabbit tracks which the wolf wanted to personally get to know. Nova grew bored of Josie's constant snow snorting.
This trail was dropping us in elevation quickly. I had taken my ice spikes off my boots a few miles ago due to too much ice and snow balling up inside the spikes. But now that we were descending, I was wishing I had them back on. However, it can be a challenge to pull them back over my boots without being able to sit down on a log or something, so I just delayed and kept going without. The problem with dropping so much elevation was that I knew this would affect my decision making when it came to arriving at the bridges or bridgeless crossings. I would be less inclined to back track back the way we had come with how I was feeling due to the virus holding my body hostage. Before long though, we came to the first crossing and needed to make that decision. Luckily, it didn't look too bad at all. But the boot prints we had been following clearly stopped and turned back, leaving the snow across the logs untouched. "What?? Why??" I asked surprised. It wasn't that bad. We just had to cross a bunch of logs that were covered in snow. Really the only challenge was not being able to see what sort of gaps were under the snow and knowing for sure that our footing was secure. But the logs were clearly large and strong. I debated just fording the river, which was not very deep, but really didn't want to get my feet and legs wet if I didn't have to all things considered. So we just crossed the logs ignoring the fact that the other hikers had turned back upon seeing this. I put both girls in the lead taking different paths while I followed them wishing once again that my spikes were back on my boots. We really didn't have any trouble though.
The trail seemed to turn and double back on itself as it was weaving tightly through the forest. Before long, we found a secret meadow that was as serene as it was silent. Now that we were between bridges, we had no other tracks to follow but those from the rabbit convention. Once again, I longed to lie down in these still pastures. I knew if I closed my eyes at all, I could be asleep in a matter of moments. Even the girls seemed to sense my waning endurance at the meadow and gave me a chance to just sit on my knees in the snow too tired to do much else. I made the excuse that I was just taking their photos, but really I was feeling pretty well at the end of myself. I should eat I knew, but couldn't bear to even pull the heavy winter pack off my shoulders. I was starting to cough and sneeze now in earnest and was catching myself moaning in misery, repeatedly blowing my nose and wishing I had more than one hankie with me.
Once I arose from the meadow and we started moving once more, it wasn't long before we reached the second bridge. "Oh" I said out loud to myself as we approached this rickety structure. It reminded me of some sort of terrible suspension bridge made from branches in pretty much any Indiana Jones movie. If I was feeling better, I would think this was really cool I thought to myself. I wondered how old the bridge was. We all stepped closer to read the sign that had been posted that it was closed and too dangerous to cross. There were clearly no tracks on this one yet again, telling me everyone else was listening. This bridge was higher off the water level and the water here was deeper as it pushed through a tighter channel. I knew I had the option of either ignoring the signs and crossing the swaying creation, fording the river, or turning back. I touched it with my boot and the entire bridge seemed to move and creak, groaning as if about to die. It clearly would not take much at all to get this thing to collapse.
I would like to tell you what choice I made, but feel that it is best to let your imagination take over at this point. I will say that I did not take option three and the way I got across that river got my heart racing and created some unforgettable moments I will surely recreate in future nightmares. I will also share with you a photo from once we got across the river looking back and reading the sign a bit more closely.
Now, I know absolutely nothing about those tracks across the bridge. I think that was entirely due to the wild rabbit convention occurring in the forest today. I will say that if I was going to try to cross a high rickety swaying bridge made of damaged branches in the snow, that I would most likely do so while crawling on my hands and knees and trying to keep the main supports under my weight while spreading the weight out from the three of us so as to improve our odds. Crawling would also theoretically help us control and arrest a collapse easier. But again, I think it was our bunny friends who left these tracks behind. I do not recommend crossing bridges such as this my friends! It would generally be a bad life choice whether you have covid or not. Besides repeatedly crawling on your hands and knees through snow when running a fever is also a bad life choice. You just don't have the energy for that sort of thing!
Now that we had dropped even further in elevation, the snow flakes were turning to icy pellets that flayed my eyes on the winds. So much for the peaceful and gentle snowflakes that had been gently melting on our eyelashes I thought. The freezing pellets seemed to instantly coat us all in a layer of ice. Nova complained that she was feeling rather wet despite wearing two coats today. I had to pull her snood back out to protect her delicate ears.
About this time, we were descending down a more treacherous portion of trail and before I knew what was happening, I became aware that my feet, which had been beneath me, were now suddenly in the air to my right. As all things like this go, time seemed to stand still as I contemplated how both of my boots and legs were now equal level with my head. But as time caught up with me again, I landed hard with all my weight right on my left hip. I just laid there in the snow letting the icy coated powder cool my flushed and feverish face. I could have laid there for some time, except that Josie started to pounce on me with all of her weight clearly having a panic attack over what she was seeing. I looked around and realized that we had been on a thin layer of snow over a thick sheet of ice on the steep trail. Without my spikes on, my boots had just flown off the ice. "Well, since I am now sitting down," I said to the girls, "I guess I am going to put those spikes back on." My wisdom in such moments is astounding. If I had but only done so earlier, I could have saved myself a very nasty bruise to my bone and my ego.
Crawling and pulling to get myself back into an upright position, I realized that I was fairly wet. But I still felt perfectly warm. In fact, if I am being honest, I was hot. I knew that I had yet to hike this fever away and figured that must be why I still had no inclination to stop and eat the hot broth and noodles I had in my thermos today. I gave the girls treats to tide them over since we clearly were not stopping for our normal trail-side supper time. Before long we had a short ravine to climb in and out of, with yet again another river in the basin. The sides were quite steep and I turned my boots sideways to get the best purchase with my spikes into the snow. But about half way down, I felt it happening. Despite my spikes, I was sliding hard and fast. I had not gotten them sunk deep enough into the layer of ice beneath me and this time I went down hard on my right hip and waist. This is of course where my gun rides in his holster. A revolver does not make a very cushioned landing I must say! I pulled myself up off the ground yet again, growing frustrated and angry with my weariness. "Give me strength to get through this hike God." I prayed. "Give me mustard seed faith that I have the endurance to persevere through my own stupidity!"
Once we dropped down what appeared to be the final of the steep pushes, making me realize that we had climbed higher than I had been aware of, we were deposited onto a wide path through a unique forest with only a trace amount of snow. All the trees here seemed to be wearing great long green beards. We all came up short just to admire the sight.
Finally, we arrived at our third and final bridge. Even the closed sign on this one seemed to have seen better days. You guessed it right that we did not turn around, but found our way across this river too.
In the final stretch back to our truck, I became aware of movement off to our right as we hiked quickly through the snow. I slowly turned my head as we were moving to see if I could figure out what I was sensing. I had assumed it was the wind in the branches, but then with a start realized it was not. The movement was a flash of white on white snow. It was the most perfect white rabbit I had ever seen. He was probably a solid 8-10 pounds and was pure white except for his beady black eyes. He froze and stared at us. By then, we had all frozen and were staring at him. We were maybe five feet apart with only a log between us. I sorely wanted to take his photo, but alas, all my focus and energy at this point was in holding back the wolf as she wanted that bunny more than I did, and for clearly different reasons. After several moments of intense observation from all parties present, the bunny took off running away from us in giant bounding leaps through the snow. It was mesmerizing. I have never seen a fully winter white rabbit in all my hiking. I can now understand how well their camouflage works! If he hadn't been moving, I never would have seen him! "Have a good convention!" I called out after him.
By the time I got home, my fever was up to 4 degrees above normal and I would lose all sense of taste yet again. I was about to be miserable for days. But at the end of this hike, as we trudged back up the final push to where I left my truck along the highway, I was happy to know two truly important things. First, I am 100% tougher than my six foot tall husband who took this bought of covid lying down while I completed a snow hike. (Okay, I have kind of always known that one, but I enjoyed confirming it yet again.) Second was the proof that bulls really do smile. Perhaps it was not a terrible way to start 2024 after all. We are surely going to spend this year taking the bull by the horns!
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