Wow, that is some lame title. But it's 9:30pm, too close to bedtime for me to come up with anything more clever.

Last weekend we hiked part of this same trail, attempting to reach the summit of Speckled Mountain, instead inadvertently veering off on a snowmobile route up Mount Adams. No matter, we decided to return this week to attempt once again, this time on the correct trail.

But this week was winter in earnest. In some places the snow was at least a foot deep and we broke trail the whole way. The fun part about this snow of course is seeing all the animals tracks. Mouse, squirrel, deer, vole(?), rabbit, undetermined canine - though we're guessing coyote since there was no accompanying human tracks, and moose.

Snow is fun. But it's also cold. This was the first real cold we've encountered in the mountains since well... last winter. We almost called it off half way up. Actually we did call it off and turned around because Laurent and I were so cold. But in Laurent's enthusiasm to turn back (very unlike him, he truly must of been cold) he started to warm up and I was just bound and determined not to quit if we didn't have to. So we turned ourselves back around and up the mountain.

We never did make it to the top. By 12:30 pm, after hiking for 3 hours through all that snow our 7 year old was more than ready for lunch and a well deserved break. So we called it good, dropped the packs, set up the stove to boil water for lunch (someday we'll share our new Japanese inspired wicked awesome trail lunch) and took a break. But not too long of a break or we'd get cold again. Just enough time to slurp lunch, use the "facilities", pack up again and be on our way down.

The trail down was fun and fast, taking maybe an hour and 45 minutes. Having already broke trail we didn't use so much energy but as the day had warmed up we weren't cold either, as long as we kept moving.

Personally, I struggled early on with a photographic disappointment and then with cold toes. But after pushing through those I enjoyed the hiking high. Experiencing the thrill of my body working (my muscles feel a delicious ache tonight from all that up hill trail breaking), the absolute stillness in the air (except for the woodpecker and the kiddos) and the refreshing solitude of the woods - neither seeing nor hearing another human soul for miles around and knowing we were the only ones on the trail today.

All of those, not to mention the invigorating conversations we had, the tears and laughter we shared, the sense of accomplishment we all felt for having done it in spite of initial hardships, were the gifts of today's winter hike. Who says the only presents this time of year are under a tree.