Fresh air IS a good thing!

Great day! Today we were supposed to meet up with a friend in town from Michigan. She's a former neighbor, the daughter of my friend Linda. I have known Steph her entire life. Steph is here with college friends and planned to take the bus out to the falls to meet up with Evan and me. Well, they took the wrong bus or buses and ended up in Forest Grove so we never met up. She and her friends missed a really amazing day. Evan and I decided that the show must go on.

We hiked up to the bride at Multnomah Falls, one of our favorite places. Then we took a picture of the Columbia River Gorge from Crown Vista Point. The winds there were off the charts and I would LOVE to know what the mph was. I had a hard time keep my camera still enough to take a picture, but I got lucky. Evan would have blown over if I hadn't held him up by his jacket. No kidding!

Then on a whim I decided to drive up Larch Mountain to a look out I was at 5 years ago that is known for being able to view 7 of the big mountains (Hood, St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, Jefferson, Baker, and another, all from ONE spot.) It's amazing and few Oregonians have been there. Leave it to the transplants to find all the good spots! On our drive up snow snuck up on us. Quickly. We got out and made snowballs all by ourselves for a few minutes. Evan wanted to make a snowman, but given that we were parked in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere, I said no. All you could hear out there was the snow falling, and an occasional hoot of an owl or something in the wild. I love that quiet that you can only get when the world is covered in snow.

We ventured on still looking for the parking lot in the middle of nowhere that has the steps that lead to this great look out. I pressed on a few more miles. I noticed a sign that read, "Caution, roads may not be plowed beyond this point." I looked ahead and felt that the road looked okay to me. I was determined. A couple of miles later, "Welcome to Mt. Hood National Forest," the sign read. Holy cow, we're really in this! Then in seconds the snow rose up and the road narrowed as the snow became as high as my car on both sides.

Within seconds I realized that I need to back up a good 20-30 feet so I could make a y-turn and get the heck out. Naturally, as I reversed, the car slid sideways in the right bank and I am thinking to myself, "Super, I am going to be one of those people on the news for driving out in no-mans land, and getting stranded!" I used my Michigan driving skills and worked me way out, backed up a good 30 feet or better where the road widened and I could see a patch of wet road where the sun shone through melting everything in that 4 square foot area. If I could keep at least one tire in that spot while I did my turning, I could get us out of here! Funny how fast adrenaline kicks in. Heart racing, the whole she-bang. We got out and I smiled the whole way down the mountain! (Heather, I wish you had been there!) Another story for the record books!