We gave each other snowshoes and boots for Christmas and decided we should test them out with a short trip to Mt. Spokane before the new year. Yesterday afternoon, we gathered our cold weather gear, Nisbet's fancy 16' leash, and some water and piled into the SUV.
As usual, Nisbet whined when we first started rolling, and was finally riding like a "big dog" when we made our first stop 10 minutes later at Alpine Haus to get the required Sno-Park pass. They don't carry the passes, so we headed to Mountain Gear on the other side of downtown. Mountain Gear had sold out, but they were kind enough to give us directions to the on-site Sno-Park pass sellers at the park. After nearly two hours of driving (for a trip that's normally 1 hour), we purchased the pass, parked the car and started off for Nisbet's first snowshoe experience.
She LOVED it! There was snow to bound in, trails to sprint on, lots of good smells, two new dogs to meet (the giant male Rottweiler was scared of her), and many people to give her extra pets for being so darn cute. After 45 minutes of fun, we decided to call it a day. It was only 15 minutes or so before sunset, and we wanted to get down from the mountain before it was too dark.
Once we started driving, we decided to join several other parties and pull over to take some photos of the sun peaking through and highlighting the snow-covered trees. The scenery was even prettier than any postcard or calendar photo, and the opportunity was too good to pass.
