Snow Hiking

Maisie and I will be going on a Pioneer Trek this Summer, and in order to get us ready for it, we've been trying to do some more hiking. So when the kids had a day off for MLK Jr. Day, we took advantage of it, and headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Our original intention had been to hike to Donut Falls. It had only been lightly raining at our house, but up the canyon it turned into a full on blizzard. I hated to just go home, so we stopped at a trail-head further down that was to take us to a place called Lake Blanche. I hadn't had the forethought to dress the kids in snow pants, and it continued to be quite the blizzard, but they all seemed to be pretty mesmerized by the winter wonderland around them.

After about a mile of hiking through fairly deep snow though, things started to get a bit rough. Finn had a hard time walking and wanted to be carried. They were getting cold, and somewhat wet. Lake Blanche was still two miles away. So we turned around and hiked back.

Teag was good enough to carry Finn for most of the mile back, which couldn't have been an easy feat.

By that time, it was past lunch anyway, so we stopped by Apollo Burger and grabbed some burgers and fries, which we ate in front of of our new fireplace. It was downright cozy. Finn has remembered that, and asked if we could have another little fireplace picnic again, so we must have done something right. A few days later, Teag and I decided to head back while all the kids were in school and see if we could make it to Lake Blanche all by ourselves.

We didn't take into account just how much snow fell during that blizzard a few days before, and it was almost slower going than when we were with the kids. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the top in the time we had available to us. It was still gorgeous though, and it has become our goal to make it to Lake Blanche at some point in the near future.