Made an extra trip to my mother-in-law's with my son, to play card games with her after the entire family went out for dinner. Then Christmas, my wife's mom came over here, to spend the day with my wife, my mom and our son. Our oldest daughter and I did something a bit different this Christmas - we went hiking up to Cook and Green trail in Rogue River National Forest about a half hour from here. 4 miles up to "No-See-Em" primitive campsite by the stream, and 4 miles back.
The image attached is the beginning of the trail. It starts up a hillside of some pine and Douglas fir and lots of madrones and oak. Then it gets more dense later with the same trees, but a lot more Douglas fir, yew, vine maple and Rhododendrons with more old growth type trees. And a lot of evergreen shrubs like huckleberry and Mahonia with moss.
We brought freeze dried Mountain house Beef Stroganoff and Oriental Rice Vegetable meals, and added hot water, using my miniature campstove in my daypack.
Built a beautiful warm and toasty bonfire.
It was grand. We reache a few snow patches among the moss and green, and some snow was on the foliage, with icicles on the ends of a few logs. Mostly clear typical forest floor debris though - just enough snow to give the winter feel. A light snow began on our descending hike - as light as the Snowscript Ekka's been using on the website this holiday. Most of the day was just overcast mixed with occassional sunbreaks.
