End of the year hike

We started 2012 with a hike (that I never blogged about) Millcreek Pipeline trail, January 1, 2012

So we decided to end the year with a hike, Uinta's Yellow Pine trail, December 29, 2012

We were invited snow shoeing with John's sister, Melanie. We took Enna and Makoa, Winston stayed home because of his unsure footing. It was a beautiful day full of sunshine.

Let me rant just a little here. I love taking our dogs with us on outdoor adventures, but I try to follow the rules. When we pulled into the parking lot, a group was letting their 5 dogs run around while they got ready. This made it very difficult to get in without hitting one of them. The rule is to keep your dog leashed up in the parking lot and I feel like this rule should be followed no matter how well you think your dog listens.
It's not a hard rule to follow and following it means that you won't be the one that ruins it for everyone else. End rant.

We let the crazy group get way ahead of us so we wouldn't have to deal with them and then trekked up into my favorite mountains.

There was SO much snow! Most of the trail was packed down from others before us and made for easy walking once you got used to the snow shoes.

John wanted to see how high his shoes would hold him up so once we got to an open field he took full advantage of it. Of course the dogs followed, but soon Enna decided it wasn't her cup of tea and came back to me.

 

When we got to the end of the packed down snow we decided that the view just wasn't good enough and we headed up higher, blazing our own trail.

This is where Enna became unhappy. The snow was pretty deep for her and she HAD to be behind John so the trail wasn't flattened out. She bunny hopped through the deep stuff and would curl up in a ball when we stopped moving.

Not a great picture since my finger was over the camera lens, but you get the idea.

 

At one point we stopped in some pretty deep stuff and she curled herself up onto the back of John's snow shoe. Normally I require Enna to walk. She may be little, but she's tough and has a lot of energy. After this I could tell she wasn't having fun so I broke my rule and carried her a little ways. 

 Mt. Timp in the distance.

 

When we finally stopped the views of the distant mountains peaks were stellar and the blue skies to die for. I made Enna walk down since the snow was packed again. She was happy to not have to hop through the drifts.

It was a wonderful hike and I'm so glad Melanie invited us to go. John and I will be buying our own snow shoes now because we really enjoyed it.