Me and Sarah decided to get serious on Spiral Butte, so we actually rented the snowshoes ahead of time, packed the night before and woke up early! We were at the trail head by 7am, giving us plenty of time for the 12 mi trip. Ben also came with, and we were very happy to have my handsome brother along.
It is 4 miles in to get to the butte and then 2 miles up. The hike in was no problem, but once we got to the butte, it was darn near impossible to find the path. No one has been on it recently enough to leave prints and we lost the trail in a part of the forest where the trees were all spread apart and there were no branches down low. (normally you can tell were the trail is because all of the branches are broken along it.) Of course the 4 feet of snow completely obscured any indication of the trail. So instead of going on the trail, we just went straight up the side of this ridge that was between us and the butte, figuring that at least we would get a close up look at the thing. That turned out to be lots of fun. Anyway, we decided that we will wait until spring to conquer the butte, and maybe next winter we will try in the snow, after we actually know the trail.
The top of the ridge, and I love Ben's goggles. By the way, Ben was awesome, considering he doesn't really work out, he took the 10 miles in the snow like a champ. My brothers are so strong anf awesome, I bet if they actually worked out they could do iron mans or something!
Whoa, look out for those trees! Sarah has just negotiated her way out of the clutches of it's branches. This is why one should not go off trail by themselves in the snow.
The Sun was out and the melting snow was like diamonds in the branches!
Ben has just finished making "tractor trails" as he likes to call them on this pristine hillside. Look he is soo proud of himself... awww, cute. I think of them as transformer tracks. You know, cuz the snow shoes look like the foot prints transformers would leave.
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