I grew up in Michigan, but was happy to escape to the Willamette Valley 10 years ago where I didn't have to deal with snow in the winter. Western Oregon has a good arrangement with winter: you can drive to the snow pretty easily, but you don't have to deal with it on a daily basis.

Though the mountains haven't gotten their fair share of snow this year (which will certainly cause some problems this summer), it's still nice to enjoy what's up there. And judging by the popularity of Oregon Wild's snowshoe trips this year (as usual), other people feel the same way. 

This weekend, I led a trip up by Willamette Pass, at the Gold Lake Sno Park. Though we had a nice full group of folks excited to snowshoe, I fully expected the snow to be old, crusty, and in short supply. But we lucked out! There were at least 4 inches of new fluffy snow, and it snowed on us a good part of the day. Woo hoo! The simple beauty of fresh snow on trees was all around us, and we couldn't have been happier.

Oregon Wild staff were also lucky, in a way, last week when we headed out to White River on Mt. Hood for our annual sledding day. We barely recognized our usual hill, what with the trees poking 3 feet out of the snow (they are usually covered). But we found a wide enough path through the trees to get one good sled run in, and then used it over and over all day as it got faster and faster and bumpier. Perfect for sledding, and better than we expected given the snow conditions.

My hope is that we get some good late-winter snow for playing and summer water, and that YOU get a chance to take advantage of it too!