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Around the time of his birthday (in January), M asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Thinking along the lines of our weekend in Seattle, I said "a memory." A few weeks later, M said "How about snowshoeing?" An afternoon in the trees on the side of a mountain!? Yes, please! How about someplace new, like Grouse Mountain? Wearing our snow boots and passports in hand, we drove up to Vancouver to find our way above the snow line. 

Grouse had over 2' of new snow in the past several hours, and after going up 2000' we were magically transported from soggy PNW winter weather to dry, feathery powder. A brief stop for carrot cake and caffeine at the "Grind" coffee shop, and we headed out into the winter wonderland.

Looking from the lodge over North Van towards the San Juans

Our route took us out along the "Snowshoe Grind" route, up above the highest lift to a ridge on the backside of the ski area. It was an uphill climb, but we cruised past the walkers until we found fresh powder.

Adjusting his poles... 

Thinking that we were going out on the ridge trail marked on the map, we we followed fresh tracks past the "top of the Grind" marker. We were tracing another person's out-and-back, but the single bear prints were the only ones we could see. We were accidentally in the back-country! Mostly, it was fresh, untracked powder. M quickly found that he could "ski" down hills on his oversized snowshoes. Once we got back on the "real" trail, it was all downhill back to the lodge.

Winter Camouflage

As we finally pulled off our snowshoes, I dusted a layer of snow off of M's back where it had been caked between his jacket and backpack in multiple tumbles down the mountain. It turns out that toe-hinging snowshoes don't front flip the same way as skis! Mid-afternoon, we refueled ourselves with delicious sandwiches at the Bistro and caught a tram back down to the car.