New Snowshoes

The Red Feather - Hike snowshoes I ordered arrived yesterday and I took them out this morning for their maiden voyage.



I picked up DJ and drove up American Fork Canyon to the Pine Hollow trail head to join the Utah Velo Club group snowshoe hike at 7:15 AM. We arrived just as they were heading out, so we got geared up quickly and started up the trail. The bindings on these shoes are fairly basic, but cinched up fast and didn't need any adjustment all day.

The group had a pretty good gap on us so we upped out pace to try and catch them, and get warm. It was in the 20s this morning and partly cloudy with little snow flurries and sun off and on. The trail is good for snowshoeing. It's a good climb, but not crazy. There was side-hilling, flat stuff, straight-up climbs, and winding through trees - a really good mix. We caught up with the group just before the first meadow.

We continued up a section of Pine Hollow that is a good climb on the bike, but was no big deal on snowshoes. At the top we stopped at the second meadow for a group photo. I'm in the middle of this zoom-in wearing the red jacket and DJ is in yellow (click on the picture for the full group).



We continued on, generally following the Ridge 157 trail heading south back toward the summit parking lot. With snow cover and snowshoes you don't have to follow the trail and the leader picked a passable route that took us in the direction we wanted to go. Here's a view from the ridge toward the back side of Mt. Timpanogos - notice the wisp of a cloud in front of the minor peak.



Along the ridge we found this steep slope and several of us slid down it. It was fun to try and stay up on the sliding snowshoes.



Here's a photo of some folks threading through the Aspens - that's Stan, the group leader, out front.



At the summit parking lot, most of the group went on up to Horse Flat and down through the Pines, but DJ and I and a few others headed down the drainage along the road to Salamander Flat. The snowmobiles had been here so the going was easy on their tracks. At Salamander Flat we took the trail that connects over to the first meadow on the Pine Hollow trail. I've mountain biked this trail numerous times, but I was surprised how tricky it was to spot the path of the trail. I was in lead and meandered a few times before staying higher on the hillside and finding the place where the trail turns a corner into a Pine forested gully. It was more work, but fun to blaze the way and make first-tracks - and through such a lovely little spot.

Before long we arrived at the meadow and headed back down Pine Hollow. I thought these flocked Pine trees looked striking.



And here's a sample of what the snowshoe trail looked like.



It was a bit hard to get up so early, but the terrain was outstanding for snowshoes and the scenery refreshing. A wonderful day outside in the mountains.

Addendum: This afternoon we went to the Junior High near us for more fun in the snow. The kids tubed down the little hill they have there while Jolene and I did laps around the big ball field on cross country skis. I'm glad we're having a good, snowy winter this year. It's been years since we've had enough snow in the valleys that stayed for more than few days.