Snowmobiling

I wanted to take advantage of the snow while it's around, so I planned a snow camping trip with my friend John. I had Friday after New Years off, so I went up alone and spent the day scouting out a spot and setting up camp for the weekend. I had to make two trips pulling gear behind my snowmobile since I was alone. I found a secluded spot just below Frog Lake Buttes (right above Green Lake). The weather was pleasant Friday and the snow still deep up higher.

Almost a foot of fresh snow fell this weekend around Mt Hood. My friend Jordan and I drove up to Frog Lake SnoPark for a fun day of snowmobile riding. I was sure just how much snow had fallen in the area, but I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the snopark Sunday morning. I nearly got my truck stuck parking, due to how much fresh snow was on the ground.

Merry Christmas! While we didn't get a white Christmas in town, Mt Hood finally received about 4-10" of snow at pass level. I had Friday off from work, so I decided to go up to Frog Lake SnoPark and check it out.

Most of our mountain snow melted during the week, but some fresh snow fell this weekend. I found reports of snowfall amounts from a couple inches to almost a foot! I was excited to get out snowmobiling again, so I convinced my friend John to go up Sunday morning with me. Our plan was to head to Little John SnoPark and drive up road 44 as high as we needed to before unloading the snowmobiles.

It has been a while since our last adventure. We gave up our search for a house and instead decided to have a new home built. Before construction started in September, we sold our old house and moved in with Katie's parents. We were hoping to be in our new home by Christmas, but it's looking like it won't be finished until the end of January. Most of my free time has been spent at the new house, but we finally managed to plan a quick trip up to the mountain.

I wanted to go out snowmobiling one more time this season before calling it quits this season. My friend John was back from vacation in Panama, so we decided to go riding Saturday out of Bennett Pass SnoPark. The snow is gone from all the lower elevation snoparks, so Bennett Pass was our only option. It's right across from Mt Hood Meadows at almost 4,700' in elevation. We often rider here early and late in the season as it's the first place snow falls and the last place it melts.

Even though it is officially Spring now, I am clinging to winter as long as I can. My reward for loyalty was some fresh snow in the mountains. My friend Nick and I took advantage and drove up to Frog Lake SnoPark early Sunday morning to go snowmobiling in the fresh snow.

After my scouting trip via snowmobile on Thursday afternoon, I decided to head back to Olallie Lake Scenic Area on Saturday to climb Olallie Butte. I have wanted to climb Olallie Butte in the winter for some time as I prefer snow and ice to dust and rocks. Olallie Butte is a shield volcano situated in the Oregon Cascades between Mt Jefferson and Mt Hood. At 7,215 feet tall it is the tallest peak between Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson. Most of it lies on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation land except for the Western flank where the trailhead is located.

Since Thursday afternoon was beautiful, I decided to make a quick drive to the Upper Clackamas for a snowmobile trip to Olallie Lake. I had never ridden this route and was curious what the snow conditions were currently like. We received about 10 inches of new snow earlier in the week before the sun came out and warmed things up again.

I finished rebuilding the fuel injected engine (top end) on our 2008 Polaris 700 Dragon RMK Friday night. During the rebuild, I discovered the previous owner didn't use Loctite® on the exhaust valve guillotines and after we put just over 100 miles on the sled, they loosened up and started hitting the pistons causing the engine failure. A local dealer said the sled was basically junk without a repaired engine. They gave me an estimate of $1,500-$2,500, so I decided to tackle the project myself.

Ever since learning about the Warm Springs Cabin on forest service road 42, I have wanted to snowmobile to it and spend the night. My cards finally lined up and I planned a trip this weekend with a couple friends. The Warm Springs Cabin is maintained by the Mt Hood Snowmobile Club. It's a log cabin with a concrete floor, large wood stove, and sleeping loft.

I had the day off Friday because I was planning on driving to Reno to visit family and go snowmobiling in the Sierras. Unfortunately there is still very little snow in that part of the country, so I booked a plane ticket to Reno on the same flight as my wife and our mini adventurer. That freed up Friday morning so I could take advantage of the fresh snow that had been falling on Mt Hood throughout the week. I met up with another snowmobiler at Frog Lake SnoPark with plans to ride out to Bonney Meadows which is on the Southeast side of Mt. Hood about 1.5 miles NW of Boulder Lake.

We hosted our second annual family snow day on Sunday. Our relatives from San Diego flew up for the holiday weekend and a fun time in the snow. Until a week ago we were worried we might not have any snow near Frog Lake, but mother nature cooperated. It rained the day before, but Sunday turned out to be perfect.

After our 2008 Polaris 700 Dragon RMK snowmobile engine burned up on our last trip, my friend John and I decided to buy a new 2014 Polaris 800 Pro RMK snowmobile to replace it. I plan to rebuild the engine on the 700 Dragon RMK, but will probably sell it after it's running again.

Another snowstorm typical of this season (mostly higher elevation snow) rolled through the mountains just before the weekend. Luckily a few inches fell around pass level so there was enough for John and I to test out the new sled near Frog Lake.

We are back into a dry weather pattern in the Pacific Northwest, but there is still some snow in the higher elevations of the Mt Hood National Forest. My friends John and Jordan joined me on Saturday for a snowmobile trip near High Prairie and Lookout Mountain East of Mt Hood. When the snow pack is down lower (around 3,000') one can snowmobile from Little John SnoPark (near intersection of Hwy 35 and NF-44). Unfortunately that is not the case right now.