Below is the cabin we stayed in. Jon googled and googled until he found a dog friendly place with a fireplace AND a hot tub. We adored that hot tub. Perhaps a bit too much, more on that later. http://www.gladyforkcabins.com/
On our very first day, we decided to take the short way on forest service roads to a hike. At first there was occasional patches of snow, then more snow, then deeper snow, until we got totally stuck. It took us a good 45 minutes of shoveling, dragging our boots across the snow like tiny snow plows, stomping it down with our feet, breaking up twigs and putting them in the path of the wheels, but eventually we made a three point turn on a one lane road in 5 inches of snow with a Dodge Neon. And we are still married. In fact, we didn't fight ONE BIT about that! No, instead we fought over getting the last beans out of a can which were stuck to the bottom while preparing dinner. Yes, that is what we fought about. Pro marriage tip: feel free to drive up any narrow snowy mountain roads with a wildly inadequate vehicle. But avoid westbrae chili beans, they stick to the bottom of the can.
Most of the hikes were on the snowy side, which is harder than normal hiking, because you slide around more on slopes, and it's a little more challenging to walk when your boots are sinking in with each footstep. The dog agreed, even she walked in the existing bootprints!
One great thing about hiking in the snow was the place was deserted. We saw no sign of anyone, except for the boot prints of some long gone hiker and many animal tracks (we are so not Teal'c*, we had no idea what made any of the tracks except for the deer and rabbit tracks).
Note the impending stream crossing, where I will winge and wobble and frantically grasp for Jon's hand. It's really not a feminist moment. I actually bought a balance board, which is a device you use to practice balance on, in response to my less than admirable behavior during stream crossings.
Another great bonus of hiking in early March: frozen waterfalls.
These were plentiful on the Otter creek trail. So were sketchy icy scary parts, and hand holding. Jon was very accommodating.
Another hike, High Falls trail, had amazing views. Here's a picture of a majestic, many-hued, stunning landscape that looks like utter crap in the photo. I can't stress enough how this landscape could bring a tear of joy to your eye, make you believe in a higher power, and make a mental note to learn watercolor painting so you can return and capture it's true essence. Yet once translated into pixels...well, you see what I mean.
Here's the kitchen, where we cooked like gangbusters:
Now, onto lessons learned. One of the meals I'd planned was tacos. We had recently purchased a bag of Beyond Meat's new burger crumbles, feisty flavor. (Who was in the focus group for that name?) Anyhow, I totally forgot to bring them, so...no tacos. I also planned a thai coconut vegetable curry...and forgot rice. I'd planned to make biscuits but forgot ground flax seeds for the egg. However, despite my screw ups, we actually still ended up having too much food somehow.
In a non-food related lesson, 7 hot tub trips in 4 days is one too many. My skin became really raw and red and dry. I had no lotion, but we did have warming massage oil, so I tried that instead. Don't ever put warming massage oil on red irritated skin. It's a bad, bad mistake that will result in an immediate desperate shower, which will hurt also.
Finally, hiking in the snow is awesome, and I totally want to do it again. It's gorgeous, peaceful, relaxing, and it you have a dog, especially nice, because they love snow so much, and you get to watch them bound around happily.
*Sci-fi reference
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