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Today Brian, Brigid, Kim and I went snow shoeing at Tonga Ridge in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Fresh snow had just fallen and we were all eager to get out and enjoy it. This was really the first time that I’ve had a chance to take my Subaru Forester on some fun roads. We drove all the way to the trail head even though there was a lot of snow and nobody else was going up that high. We got within 100 yards of the trailhead and I managed to get into a ditch and get it stuck. Some other snow shoers helped us push it out. All in all, I was very impressed with how it handled in the snow, but next time I need to have some chains and a snow shovel.

The hike went up through some trees and then followed a ridgeline with some really nice views. After hiking in for about a half hour we had to break trail since nobody else had gone farther. Kim and Brigid both had new snow shoes, so it was good that we had a chance to use them in some fresh snow, even though Brigid didn’t like her new shoes. The views were terrific and it was a gorgeous sunny day. Brian kept running down steep slopes and then regretting it while Kim kicked little snowballs down the slope. We would have liked to go longer, but we had to turn around so that we could get back to the car before it was dark. We saw some nice skylines as the sun was setting. I ended up stuck behind a long line of Jeeps that were loaded with Christmas trees and driving really slowly. Actually, there was a group of Jeeps and all of them drove slowly and didn’t go anywhere cool all day. One funny thing is that someone said they saw a Hummer get stuck and a Jeep had to pull it out. We were all pretty tired after driving back.