A beautiful sunny day on Mt. Hood was the forecast for Saturday, Feb. 1st. I decided I would head up to the popular Trillium Lake Snow Park for a long snowshoe run. My plan was to complete 10 miles running in snowshoes. With fresh snow, a beautiful day and temperatures in the mid-30's, the parking lot was extremely crowded. I decided I would run the groomed trail for one and a half miles, and then venture on the longer 7 mile mud creek loop, attempting to run the entire 10 mile trek. If you have never run in snowshoes, it is much more difficult than regular trail running. Some in the running community equate 1 mile in snowshoes to 1.5-2 miles running on the road.
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| Trillium Lake Parking Lot |
I estimated that it would take me about 2 hours to complete the entire loop. For gear, I wore lightweight running pants, a short sleeve technical shirt, a light jacket, beanie and light weight running gloves.
New Balance 110 Boot with built in gaiter, and
Havlick Snowshoe Sprinters. I brought along 12 oz. of water, and one packet of gu for my calories and hydration. I had a late start that day so hit the trail about 1:15 p.m. I figured I would be done about 3:15, stop by Charlie's in Government Camp for a post run beer and then back home to Portland.
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View from crest of Mud Creek Loop
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Having never run off the groomed section of trillium which is fairly straight forward, I did not anticipate that Mud Creek loop would not be groomed. After running 1.1 miles from the Trillium lake parking lot, I ventured off to forest road 2656 aka "Mud Creek Loop." There was nearly 6-9 inches of powder and it climbed steadily over the first 2 miles. I managed to run to the crest of the climb without having to walk or hike.
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| View looking back to Mt. Hood from Mud Cr. Loop |
There were no other snowshoers on the loop and only cross country tracks were to be found. I had not seen a soul for an hour and was worried that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. However, with my music cranked up, the beautiful scenery, miles 4-8 were flying by. At mile 8 my phone had died and my water had run out. For the next two miles it began to go uphill again before it descended back down to the original groomed trail of Trillium loop. I could no longer run the last two miles as I used all of my energy plowing through the heavy snow. I played a game where I would pick an object a 100 yards away and imagine there was a beer and run to the object and then walk/hike for 100 yards. The temperature had started to dip and I realized with my slow pace, the sun was starting to go down behind the trees. Finally, somewhere after my phone had died, which was also my distance tracker, I saw a sign that pointed to hwy 26! I made it back on the groomed trail and from there it was a slow walk/jog back to the car. Thoughts of a cold beer and a bowl of soup were my motivation the last mile.
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| Trillium Lake loop |
Overall, a great day. However, it took me about 3 hours on a trip I had estimated would take me 2 hours max. Lesson learned! Doing it again, I would recommend having a companion since you are basically the only one on the trail for over 7 miles. Having run out of water and having a dead cell phone and no other GPS device was not wise. Had I been hurt or perhaps mauled by a cougar or worse attacked by the dreaded Mt. Hood Forest Yeti, having someone with me would have been helpful and more enjoyable. I would definitely bring a lightweight running backpack for extra water, nutrition etc. It was very warm and sunny when I started so I had taken off my hat, gloves and jacket. A backpack would have been nice to store that stuff in.
Hope you enjoyed my adventure! See you on the trails!
