Now that the house was sold it was time to celebrate, by you guessed it taking a trip!
For thanksgiving this year I decided to bypass the usual turkey and pig out fests for something a little less traditional: Snowshoeing and Camping on Oregon's Mt. Hood for 4 days and 3 nights. Not only was this a chance to visit one of my favourite cities again, but it was also a sort of 'evaluation' for my friend Rose.
I met Rose last August while visiting Portland Oregon. I couch surfed with her for a night. We got along really well, and shared a lot of the same ideas and aspirations about travel, music, and life. I told her all about my Freedom Thirty Five plan, and she shared with me her plans about joining peace corps next year. Since then we've managed to stay in contact through Facebook.
About a 6 weeks ago Rose contacted me, and asked about how my plans were shaping up for FTF. I told her I was still waiting on selling the house, but that I was still committed and hope I could start in the spring of 2011. Well as you all know the house sold, so I was able to give myself a definite start date for the trip. Rose explained that she was having second thoughts about Peace Corps, and really liked the idea of my trip. I told her it would be great to have someone along for the ride, but that my style of travel would not be an easy one and is not a ‘vacation’ in the minds of most people I know. We agreed that a trial trip was in order and she invited me out to Portland Oregon so we could do a camping trip and see how we get along for a few nights in some rough conditions.
I flew out to Portland on Nov 23rd, the day before thanksgiving. Rose picked me up and we spent the evening catching up and sorting out our gear. Thursday morning we jumped in her pickup truck and headed for the mountain. Along the way we picked our sno-pass, and food for the trip.
We spent our first day snowshoeing along the Tilly Jane Trail. Weather was clear, and we finished about 5 miles total round trip. After we got back to the truck we drove closer to Government Camp (town in the National Forest around Mt. Hood) and found a place to camp not far from where we parked. We setup camp and cleared a proceeded to make dinner. The next 2 days we had some great weather for snowshoeing, Unfortunately we did not have clear skies so we were not able to get any great views or photos of the mountains. We spent our second night camping in a different place, near frog lake. We snowshoed to the twin lakes which was really pretty, and we had the fun of dodging big piles of snow sliding off the trees. Unfortunately we also discovered that it was a popular spot for dog sledders and snow mobilers, so there was plenty of activity throughout the night. On the third night we decided to live large and stayed in a cheap motel near Mt. Hood. The next day we visited the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, it was used for exterior shots in the Shining, but there was no maze or anything when we were there. That afternoon we headed back to Portland. On the way back though we stopped for lunch, Rose suggested that instead of going out to eat we just pull over and cook up some food that we had left, so I used the camp stove and we tail gated on the side of the road. This sealed the deal for me because I felt she would be able to travel with me on a very tight budget. It was this kind of attitude and ideas that I was looking for in a travel companion. Rose has to be at work Monday morning so we headed back Sunday afternoon.
Sunday night I was able to meet with my good friend Melissa, who is in studying law at Lweis and Clark university. I would have liked to spend more time with her during my visit, but first year law is very demanding so I was lucky to have spent an evening with her.
The next 3 days I spent the days working from Rose’s apartment and the evenings planning more of FTF. She was still undecided at this point between FTF and Peace corps, but I knew that we could travel together and things would work out if she did choose FTF. Either way I was looking forward to my trip In March, but first off to Las Vegas to run a marathon.
See the complete album here: Mt. Hood Album
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