It always feels so good to ascend out of the cloud- or fog-dense valley into the blue skies and sunshine waiting at higher elevations. Saturday, as a small group of Oregon Wild members headed up the McKenzie River to go snowshoeing, we were all ready for the sun.

Originally planned for the Gold Lake Sno-Park, I decided to change locations when I found out there was a big "Snow Fest" planned at Gold Lake - coordinated by all the local outdoor stores. I didn't think we'd be able to get away from the hordes of people down there. So we went up to the McKenzie Headwaters and parked at Lava Lake Sno-Park. Bill Sullivan recently had a column in the Register-Guard about snowshoeing south to Fish Lake along the historic Santiam Wagon Road, and it sounded nice. We checked it out, and though we were near the highway, we were far from any hordes of people.

There wasn't any fresh snow, so the trail was well-packed and one of our hikers actually hiked rather than put on his antique wood and sinew snowshoes. But the trail went through a beautiful, diverse old forest with Pacific Yew trees, mountain hemlocks, big Douglas-firs, and lots of snags with woodpecker holes to check out. Our destination was an old development from wagon-train days - nestled in a lava flow next to Fish Lake. Not the most pristine spot, but we enjoyed a nice view of Browder Ridge from the edge of the lake, and did some treking through the mounded, snow-covered lava where we got a peak at Mt. Washington in the distance.

While the company was good, and sunshine welcome, two other highlights made the trip for me. One was having along a couple of little explorers - Elena (6 months) and Sylvan (3 years). Sylvan was carried down the trail, but once lunch was over he wanted to put on his snowshoes and go out on the lake. Wow! They make tiny snowshoes! He entertained the group and pointed out funny things in the snow.

The second highlight (and this goes back to my last blog entry) was finding some really cool scat (poop!) near the lava-covered shoreline of the lake. I even had my new "Scats and Tracks" book with me, but nothing seemed to match. Gary thought it was some sort of marmot or other rodent based on the look, but we couldn't find anything in the book that was as long and skinny as the pieces in the pile. What a mystery! However, after more investigation, I think I've found the culprit: grouse! This is no ordinary bird poop, so I hadn't looked in that section of the book. Now that I have, I'm pretty certain.

Photos from the trip can be found here (even one of the scat!). Thanks, snowshoers, for a fun day!