The pouring rain hadn’t let up for even a moment from the time we all woke up, to meeting up at Travis’s, to pulling up to the Kurt’s Connection trailhead on Mt. Hood. We were doing this despite the rain’s protests. There was only the faintest vibe of, hey, maybe we should try this again another day? but the trail was only three miles long and no one wanted to be that person. I was vaguely comforted by the fact there was one other person there who hadn’t snowshoed before, but I knew I’d be the slowest person on account of generally being slower and I was also recovering from tearing a meniscus in my left knee two-and-a-half months prior.

It technically wasn’t my first time. My girlfriend, Brie, and I did it once for our second anniversary. We rented snowshoes and had no clue what we were doing, but the day would end with whiskey and a hot tub in a fancy cabin, so who cared? We accidentally picked a “difficult” trail and it was awful. We fell over and over and it was hilarious until it wasn’t anymore. We were beat up by the end, but we actually completed the trail. It didn’t ruin snowshoeing for me, but it took me another three years to give it this second shot. I thought it could only be a breeze after that first experience. Continue reading “Part I: Fat Woman Falling” →