Snow, beautiful snow!

We have finally received a few inches of snow and it feels like winter.  Of course, it always feels like winter when the temperature hovers around 20 degrees, but at least with snow there is the hope of snowshoeing.  I have a little group of friends who snowshoe with me, but to my horror, they were all busy on Snowshoe Monday!  My friends couldn't come out to play and I was sad.

 However, like the trouper I am, I stayed in my jammies an hour longer until it warmed up to 29 degrees, strapped on my icewalkers and headed to Lone Pine.  I know I should have snowshoed anyway, but Lone Pine is closer to my house and, after all, we didn't get THAT much snow.  The trail up to the top of Lone Pine was snow-packed and icy, so I was glad to have my trusty YakTrax and my poles to keep me upright. 
 
 It was a beautiful day, cold and crisp and the walking warmed me.  I climbed up the Cliff Trail and paused when a bunny dashed across the trail in front of me.  Bunnies aren't bred for brains, so this one stopped under a big rock, believing himself to be invisible.  I fumbled in my pocket for my camera, turned it on and found the bunny - still frozen and 'invisible' to me.  Poor bunny.  There's a reason that they are incredibly fertile.

He was cute and as soon as I rearranged my camera into my pocket, grabbed my poles and continued on my way up the trail, he hopped away through the snow.

 The trail led me up to a vantage point below the overlook, but I am always fascinated with the geology of a place, so I looked up at the rocks looming overhead.  At one time in Lone Pine's history, the overlook was used as a dumping-off place for old cars, dead refrigerators and bald tires.  There are still a few traces of rusted bits of castoff machinery below the overlook, left there by the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department because it's too hard to remove.  Now we have a lovely trail system where there was once only the novel pastime of seeing how far an old tire could bounce on the rocks far below the drop-off point.

As I looked up at the rocks, I began to feel the cold, so I pushed on up the trail looking forward to being at the upper vantage point.  There is a place on the trail where a hiker must climb up and over some sizable rocks.  This always means to me that I'm past the steepest part of the trail and the end is in sight.  I like climbing on the rocks.  Somehow, they seem friendly and not so steep as the switchbacks that lay just behind me.  The sun was shining and I thought I'd stop and take another photo.

My next stop was at the overlook itself where I admired my little town, the mountains and the view of Glacier National Park in the clouded dip beside Columbia Mountain.  The mountains in winter are beautiful and I longed to be in the park, no matter what the weather.  Perhaps a snowshoeing road trip is a good idea.  Then my working friends could join us on a weekend.

I always like going downhill much more than going uphill, so I started on the downward path toward the bottom of the hill and my waiting car.  I didn't see any deer this time, so my little bunny was my only companion on my hike.  I can't wait for more snow so I can snowshoe up the trail. 

 Today, we woke up to rain.  RAIN.  It'll be icy on Lone Pine this afternoon, but I might make the attempt anyway and dream of more snow later in the winter.