I have spent every Christmas of my 33 years at my mom's home in Sacramento, California. When I moved to San Francisco after high school, the short drive was easy. Then I moved to New York City, and the trip became much more difficult: crazy weather at home, long lines at the airport, delayed flights, stressed out people everywhere... you know how it goes.
When I moved to Bend, Oregon it should have become easier, but in some ways it just isn't. The lack of direct flights from Bend to Sacramento means we choose to drive rather than fly. The weather is always the wild card: if it is nice out, we get to stop at Bunny Flat on Mt. Shasta for some fun backcountry skiing to stretch our legs. If the weather is bad, however, our drive becomes hours longer, we start tallying vehicles off the side of the road (we counted 14 on one trip), and we are miserable by the time we reach our festive destination.
This year the weather was unusually stormy. It had been snowing non-stop for about two weeks before Christmas, and the roads were covered in ice and packed snow with tire chain ruts. We read about multiple fatal accidents on the roads in central Oregon. We began researching alternate routes, all of which would have taken hours longer, and also had snow on the road and in the forecast. I-5 had been closed on and off in the days leading up to Christmas Eve, and the traffic looked horrendous.
Erik and I had to make a tough call, but we decided: it was going to be too snowy and crazy to drive down to Sacramento for Christmas this year. We were stuck, snowbound, in Bend.
How did we fill our free time over the Christmas holiday? In the snow, of course!
We rode our snowmobiles through deep pow in search of soft landings and face shots...
And found them!
We broke trail through thick blankets of snow:
We explored the forest looking for new places to ski:
We got cold in the sub-freezing temperatures...
And warmed ourselves by a wood stove in a warming shelter:
And did plenty of skiing!
