Twin Lakes Snowshoe

Mt. Hood over Upper Twin Lake

The Action Adventure Team has not had an outing in a while. So it was good to get the core team together, load up in the Action Adventure Mobile, and head up to the mountain. Today we are trying out some new MSR Evo snowshoes (we have 2 models, the newer ones have an interesting change to the bindings...). 

On this hike we will start at the Frog Lake snowpark, hike up the hill on the PCT and then down to Lower Twin Lake. Depending on how we feel at this 2 mile point, we will either eat lunch or continue on to Upper Twin lake (another mile up a steep switch back). Before you go saying things like "Oh, Big Deal, a 6 mile hike". This is not a hike, this is a snowshoe. It uses different muscles. Trust me. 

PCT and Loop trail crossroads

Frog Lake is a large (icy in winter) parking lot that is very close to the "Frog Lake". This lake is evidently small and very shallow and seems to be the place that people drive their snow mobiles to. We are actually going in the opposite direction (we hike East) up the hill along the PCT going generally toward Mt Hood. If you continue on this trail, you will come to the Barlow Pass snow-park in about 6 miles. I want to do that as a point to point some time. I have snowshoed down from Barlow Pass a couple of times but have always got stopped on the ridge before the turns to the Twin Lakes by bad weather or a bad knee. 

The snow depth this year is not nearly as much as my previous snowshoe. Last time there was a 2 foot deep track all of the way that occasionally got very narrow and difficult to manage in big snowshoes. In fact, those tracks and the problems we had walking through them were the main motivation of getting smaller, lighter, and more expensive snowshoes (e.g. The MSR Evo).

Today, the snow is not nearly as deep as last time and has more crunch to it (I think it may have had a little rain at some time or at least a little thaw). The new snow shoes, however are still great. The last storm, which must have been in the last few days) blew hard from the south and left a splattering of snow encased on the southern edge of all of the trees on this side of the ridge. It made for lovely views as we followed the rising trail up to the intersection of the Twin Lakes Loop trail. I find that when I am hiking or snow shoeing these days, I spend a lot of time watching the trail and my feet. Although I think that this is important, it is also important to stop and look around the enjoy the damn view. The snow is beautiful and the trees are majestic. Off in the untrammeled snow you can see glistening ice flakes and also the little foot prints of mice or bunnies.  We come over the ridge and head down toward Lower Twin lake, as we go down the sun comes out from behind a cloud and it gets noticeably warmer. The trees start dropping ice and snow on us in these little puffs of release. I got nailed a couple of times by a pretty large ice chunk. Big enough to let me know it was there. 

We decided not to stop at Lower but continue on the trail up the steep switchbacks to Upper Twin Lake. I have never been to upper twin. Hmmm.... it looks just like lower twin. Only higher. We were lucky enough to be some of the first people that had made it too the lake after the most recent snow and we got to try our Evos out on the virgin deep snow of the lake surface. I could tell that these shoes were not giving me as much flotation as my older larger and more traditional shoes (Costco Specials) but I still was happy to have the small and lighter snowshoes. 

We hiked across the lake over the Northeast side so we could get into the sun. There we tromped down a patch and put down our red tarp and sat down in the snow to have our lunch. What red tarp? you may be asking? Well, this is the little utility tarp that I have been using for over a decade. I take it along on pretty much any adventure. It is red on one side and silver on the other and has grommets in it so you can put it up as a rain fly or just sit on it to keep your butt dry. Mine has a few burn holes in it from getting too close to a fire (or probably a hiking stove) at one time or another. They only cost like $20 bucks and they last forever. These days you can even get them in Blue or Yellow or Camo. Why you would want a Camo one I am not sure. I don't want an emergency blanket that lets me hide from the rescue teams. 

One difference between the lakes, From Upper Twin, on the Southside, where the trail comes in from Lower Twin, you can just see the top quarter of Mt Hood.  We didn't hike the loop but just retraced our steps back to the car. The return trip is mostly downhill, so we had an easy time of it. 6 or 7 miles roundtrip.

We stopped at Zig Zag Inn for pizza on the ride home because that is what one does.