Let's Get This Hard Pack Party Started!

This winter started with a wet, heavy, first coat, in the Oregon Cascadia but Dec. has given us such a long, dry-out that we're begging for the next shellacking.  Urban theatrics drove us out of town.  We needed to "occupy snow".  We hiked for harbor at Cloud Cap, on the N. side of Mt. Hood.  We were after some exercise, a look around and maybe avoidance of a road-rage homicide, in Portland.  The brittle blue sky was the show-off guest of the weekend.  Half a moon, casting vampire trees on the snow, at 3 a.m. and that stretch between 1 and 3 in the afternoon when the wind dies and the warmish sun races for the mountain's cold shoulder; were the high cards in a pretty good hand.