Today Emily and I had a great day of backcountry skiing with Leo in the Tom Dick backcountry. It was great to be back on the same trails as last year when we first introduced him to chasing us on skis. We had great views of Mt. Hood and got a few quick turns in on some very heavy, wet snow before tearing down the trails with Leo at the tails of my skis. He was thoroughly exhausted and slept soundly all evening. Click the title to read on....
We wanted to once agin get into the mountains as the previous rainy weekend we had spent indoors playing a very addictive video game. Leo was in need of another adventure as well so we decided to head up to Mt. Hood for some skiing. Not really sure on what the weather would be I packed both my fat boards and my skinny alpine ascent skis, having freshly waxed and repaired them the night before (I fixed a huge core shot from Meadows 2 weeks earlier). By the time we got up to Government Camp we could tell it was going to be a warm day and the powder skiing would simply be heavy cement instead, not worth the price of a resort ticket.
Instead, we decided to head up to Mirror Lake as we had done a year ago on Leo’s first snow experience with us. Having him for over a year now we were much more comfortable letting him off leash as soon as we crossed the small bridge into the woods from the highway. We now know he sticks by us and doesn’t run off. In fact, he pretty much always follows behind me no matter where Emily is on the trail. Not sure why. 
We passed a lot of snowshoers and all of them found Leo adorable following alongside us. As usual we got baffled looks from everyone as we passed them on skis going uphill. It didn’t take us long to reach Mirror Lake and we decided to continue upward towards Tom Dick Peak. We made it up a few switchbacks before Leo became visibly tired so we stopped for a long break of dog trees, water and chocolate. 
When Leo appeared rested and not panting we tore off our skis, clicked in and headed down the very short slope of very wet powder back to the treeline and the lake. Just like last year I held a camera low and backwards to get film of our favorite buddy chasing me down the trail. Although he was tired and definitely dehydrated (he’s fussy about drinking enough) he kept up with me the whole way down back to the highway. He definitely got his exercise, we got some great views of Mt. Hood with fresh snow on it and Leo spent the rest of the evening at home passed out happily on the floor.
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