Schwarzwald

I met with Bernward and friends two weekends ago for a little winter hike. I knew I was getting a bit in over my head. It might have been the 4 trains and 1 bus that I had to take together that clued me in, or maybe it was walking up the side of a snowy mountain with a speedy little rope tow running along side me. Most likely it was the walking poles that my fellow hikers had that made it terribly obvious that this was not a day in which I could expect to do anything the easy way.




Except when I was able to slide down the side of the hill on my butt because of my fabulously slippery snow pants. I will admit that was pretty easy, and probably my favorite part! You can even see my trail if you look closely at the picture to the right.















The best part was when they said that we were going to hike to the top of the third highest peek in ... drum roll please... The Black Forest. Well it wasn't Mount Hood but hiking in three feet of snow did kick my butt. The scenery was was absolutely worth it, I just didn't realize it until I saw the photos that Damion took.
















This is where we ate lunch, not to mention the coolest picture ever!

Many have asked why its called the Black Forest or Schwarzwald and this is my answer, derived completely from my overly observant landscape oriented brain: Its a bit funny for us North Westerners to understand, but when most of the country side is made up of deciduous forest, hills covered in coniferous (evergreen) trees are a strikingly dark. They almost look black when compared to the chartreuse spring leaves on the deciduous trees seen at lower elevations.