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Contributed by trip leader Ann Padgett, photos by Laura Seaver

Cooperation from the weather gave us a fabulous Full Moon Ski.  Upon arrival at Meissner Sno Park we were greeted with alpenglow from the sunset.  We then headed up Tangent Loop to the Meissner Shelter via Manzanita. The scene at the shelter was quite festive with a large group of hikers there. After equipment adjustments we headed back down Manzanita to Tangent where we made a stop in the moonlight at Swampy Sno Park for snacks and drinks. The ski back down to Meissner was fast and fun with our way guided by moonlight. A great time was had by all!!

Contributed by trip leader John Stephenson, with photos from Barb Lowe

To take in the first full moon of 2025, seven CONC snowshoers/yaktraxers trekked up to Jeff View shelter. On the way up, we were treated to a brilliant sunset behind the Three Sisters. After dark, the rising moon took a while to break out of clouds on the eastern horizon, but once it did it lit up the night and the mountains. The shelter was hoppin’ with several other groups of moonlight seekers. The moon was high enough on the return trip to make headlamps unnecessary. I can report with high confidence that everybody enjoyed being up there on such a beautiful evening!

The number of registrants dropped from 14 to 10 when I sent an email that metal edges would be needed to traverse some of the sidehills on the way to Berley Lakes.  However, the remaining group was pleasantly surprised to find an inch of fresh snow at the Santiam Trailhead.  But the traverse was blown free of snow and difficult to gain an edge, as expected.  The prediction of partly cloudy was accurate, with a few snow flurries to add to the fresh.  Half of the route was through old burns with a splash of sun and a couple of small ponds, but the other half was often tricky navigating through the trees, often skiing on the small "bridge" of snow between two tree-wells.

  

The closer we got to Berley Lakes, the more fresh snow we found on top of the consolidated base, with about 3" at the lake.  Of course, this enticed us with off course turns and led to unplanned route finding through new growth to get back to the route.  However, the drop to the lake was much too steep for carving turns with deep tree wells that forced us to side step and kick turn our way down.  This was clearly an advanced skier adventure that appealed to those crazy people that joined the group!

Contributed by trip leader Kelly Clemen

Nine adventurous participants joined together for the CONC snowshoe up the new Vista Butte trail. Gaining over 700 feet of elevation in one mile, the route can be a bit steep sometimes, but the view at the top is well worth the effort. Our first challenge was getting up the 6-7 foot snowbank from the parking lot to the starting area. Fortunately a chute had already been created and we were able to place our snowshoes and poles on the bank above and then crawl up the chute. We strapped on our snowshoes and started climbing up that 700 feet to the top. We were fortunate that the trail was well-broken which made our trip to the top a lot easier. We stopped several times to get a breather and take off unneeded clothing, but in about 45 minutes we breasted the hill and marveled at the stupendous views of Mt Bachelor, Tumalo Mountain, Broken Top and South Sister as well as the numerous cinder cones and meadows below us. It was a lovely day, so the views were all out in the open. After eating a snack and taking in our fill of the views, we decided to head down a slightly different route paralleling the Vista Butte ski trail so we could tromp through some powdery snow. It added some new scenery to the trip and added a tad bit more mileage to the return. Once back at the trailhead, we had to slide back down the chute to where the cars were parked. Everyone did great on the day and had fun! If you haven't done the Vista Butte snowshoe trail yet, here is a link to a Bulletin article on the trail.

Contributed by trip leader Dennis Krakow

Well, the forecast was iffy, but 6 of us were game.  Our reward was high overcast, calm wind and 4" of overnight snow.  Perfect.
Our trip started with a sprint for 3 of us as we avoided the flying debris from ODOT's snow blower clearing the lot.  What else could go wrong?  Turns out nothing.  We proved that, "Not all who wander are lost" is true.  We skied trees and clearings near the Beginners and Swampy Loops.  Always a puzzle to solve when we encountered blue diamonds.  3 hours later, we finished on the old blue Beginners trail.  The most difficult part of the day!
PS I skied the next day at Swampy and no fun at all after a thaw/freeze cycle.  It is nice to be so lucky.

Contributed by trip leader Dennis Damici

It turned out to be a great day at Swampy. This trail and the shelter was the first for a few. They were very impressed. The scenery was awesome. Everyone was thrilled to have attended. Their smiles said it all at the conclusion of our trek.

Contributed by snowshoe leader Kelly Cleman

The day started out a bit wonky as Sunday traffic up to Swampy Sno-Park was slow-going. But we finally made it to the turnoff only to discover a stuck van parked across the entrance. All eight snowshoers sprang into action with our snow shovels and sand and quickly got the van unstuck! We drove into the parking lot and then discovered that the lot had not been plowed out yet. The snow was pretty deep, so we got to work shoveling out places for the cars to park. With all of that done, we were now ready to go snowshoeing! The goal of this snowshoe trip was to do the Long Loop trail from the Sno-Park, however we quickly discovered that no one had been on the trail yet and there was at least a foot of new snow to plow through. Everyone took a turn as we moved slowly towards the first junction. We discussed if we still wanted to proceed towards the junction with the Long Loop and we decided to keep going that way, breaking through more snow along the way. The new snow was heavy and the leaders felt like they were trying to move through a marshmallow. Needless to say, we didn't move very quickly. We got to the second junction and decided to turn back the way we came. It was easy-going back along the now-broken trail for a while and we got back to the first junction fairly quickly. We noticed that someone had come through after us and turned at that junction to do the Short Loop. So we decided to head that way to make a loop of it. However, we quickly caught up with the group that had been breaking trail coming back our way and so we ended up breaking the rest of the trail back to the trailhead. Everyone took another turn good-naturedly and towards the end, we were rescued by a strong snowshoer from another party that offered to take over the leading duties. We were all happy to have someone else do the work for the last 1/4 mile. We arrived back at the trailhead tired, but with a strong sense of accomplishment for the day. 

Contributed by snowshoe leader Kelly Cleman

Five snowshoers started out from Swampy Sno Park on the trail to the Nordeen Shelter. More snow had fallen on the trail since the last snowshoers went through, so there was some work to be done getting the trail broken in again. The sun and patches of blue sky accompanied us as we traded out leading the group. We arrived at Nordeen Shelter and were able to enjoy some of the views from the ridge as we ate our lunch. Refreshed, we headed back up the trail towards Swampy Sno-Park. We stopped at the junction for the Long Loop trail and talked about if we wanted to go that way or just head back to the trailhead. Everyone was getting a bit tired so we voted to return the way we came. A great day for everyone!

Contributed by snowshoe leader Kelly Cleman

This snowshoe was open to non-club members who attended the Snowshoe Seminar held at the library in early December. Six enthusiastic and strong snowshoers took us up on the offer. Two people in the group had never been snowshoeing before, so we wanted to make sure we showed them a good time! It was lightly snowing at the trailhead and there was quite a bit of new snow overnight,  but the first part of the trail had already been broken in, so it was easy going for a while. However after the first mile, we caught up with the couple that had been breaking the trail and they gladly let us take over. Over the next 3/4 mile, we took short turns breaking trail and arrived at the Swampy Shelter energized and ready for a break. The original plan was to continue around the loop and meet back up with the first part of the trail using the Porcupine Tie. However, one of the participants was getting a hot spot on their foot and so we decided to head back the way we came along the broken-in trail. It was still snowing as we returned to the trailhead and everyone headed home tired but exhilarated after the lovely day spent out in the snow.

Contributed by trip leader John Stephenson, additional photos by Char Newman

Taking advantage of a rare break in the recently stormy weather, seven CONC snowshoers enjoyed lots of fresh snow, beautiful views, and good company trekking on the snowshoe trail from Upper Three Creeks Sno-park up to Jeff View Shelter. The trail was well broken in and there were lots of other snowshoers & skiers out there.

We became adventurous on the way back and took the unofficial (pretty much unknown) Bob Timmer Scenic Loop on the way down, breaking snow and navigating by GPS (on the map the official trail is the direct orange line on the left, with the loop we took back on the right). It worked out well, with even more expansive views of the high peaks! We saw another group of ‘shoers following the path we created, so it might get more use…