Monday, January 10, 2011

Monday Night...


Snowshoeing! The ride was canceled for obvious reasons and I was excited to finally cut apart the plastic ties holding the snowshoes together. Got out of work late, funny how 80 percent of our patients canceled their appointment today yet we still managed to see a patient until 5:45pm! Grrrr...
I avoided the south hill. Wind was picking up and without the trees, I knew it would be cold. 

Anyway, didn't make it out to Tranquility until 7:30pm. I wasn't going to let the darkness stop me from having my fun. Attached my Stella to my backpack, threw on my snowboarding pants and jacket, and walked out onto the trail.

I headed towards the north half of Tranquility. There was a cross country skier's fresh trail and possibly somebody else on snowshoes from earlier in the day. I tried to follow the singletrack as much as possible, but being dark and with the trees drooping from the fresh snow, it wasn't exactly easy. And speaking of those trees, they were beautiful. My little Canon camera couldn't do the scene justice. Especially at night.
CAUTION: Deep snow ahead. Do not cross unless you have snowshoes or a snowbike! 

So how was the snowshoeing you ask? It was pretty fun. My legs were actually getting a little fatigued towards the end. The snowshoes are super light, but you have to lift your legs a little higher as you walk because of the fresh, deep powder. Yes Todd, like "high sassy kicks" as John would say. Like the internet says, backing up takes a little practice. Almost got tripped up a few times. Kind of like crossing your cross country skis while backing up. It really gets your feet tangled up! As for the traction? Excellent! I was walking back to my car with the snowshoes off and was slipping and sliding on the powder with my hiking boots. That is when I realized what a difference they made.

Good times. I found a few snowshoe hikes around nature centers in town taking place this month. I'll try to make it to a few of those. Also sounds like some hiking clubs do snowshoeing events. If anybody wants to give them a try, just let me know.

1 comment:

  1. I took a look at Scheels. They have a scale you stand on. Instead of showing how much you weigh, it says what size snowshoe you would need. It said I would need 36 inch snowshoes.

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