Snowshoeing

[Lifesgreat]

DH and I went up on the Squaw Peak road in Provo Canyon today. It is used by runners, snowmobilers, mountain bikers (yes in the snow) and xc skiers as well. The road is pretty packed down. It was sunny and I am guessing in the 20s. It is ALL uphill until the turnaround. I hate going uphill, but REALLY like going downhill. We saw some interesting sights:
1. Man running with his three chocolate labs. He was wearing a t-shirt, gloves, bike shorts, long gaiters and snowshoes.
2. A group of snowshoeing teenagers. DH commented they look like a big caterpillar. We discovered the reason for the "caterpillarness" was their being strung together through their side belt loops by a thin, black cord. There were two college age kids bringing up the rear, not hooked to them. If I were to guess, it was a group from a local group home or something.
3. An ATV coming up the snow packed road towing two older wood/metal runner sleds with adults my age (early 40s) on them. They were grinning away. I am guessing teenage son and daughter were letting Mom and Dad have a turn.
4. Snowmobilers-all were polite.
5. A herd of elk, but they went over the ridge before we got close.
6. A man running w/o snowshoes-now that would be a workout.

I still haven't taken the time to learn how to shrink pictures, so I won't post what I have.

Fun! Fun! Fun! Lots more snow predicted in the coming week!

[Crankin]

After 3 days of pretty strenuous x country skiing, my husband and I decided to snow shoe on our last afternoon. We were at a place called the Highland Lodge, which has its own trails. This isn't actually in Craftsbury, where we had skied at the outdoor center the previous days. In the morning I had done my first black diamond ski trail (no falling!) and the conditions were excellent; packed powder. So the person at the lodge showed us how to access the trail, through someone's driveway. She said after a little ways, we would see an old snow shoe tacked to a tree and that was the start of the trail. Well, we saw the snow shoe and turned at the intersection of the trails. Up we went. The trail was narrow and beautiful, with snow covered pines and other trees. I could only look ahead, since there was a steep drop off on my left. It was challenging to say the least. Finally, we saw we were getting above the tree line and we ended up on an open field that looked familiar. We had skied UP this trail in the morning. My husband had his GPS watch on and was insisting we go right, but I knew we had to go left. I said if he didn't go that way, I was going to follow the snow shoe trail back the way we came! We started walking down the side of the ski trail, which was about 8 inches of powder. Hard to break trail here. I also realized how much we had climbed on our skies that morning as we started going down. As we got further down the trail nearer to the lodge, we saw a skier coming up, who confirmed that we were headed in the right direction. Then, we saw a sign with the name of the snow shoe trail we thought we had been on and it looked like it also headed back. After about a mile of slight uphill, the trail turned toward the lodge and started heading down. And lo and behold, we came to the intersection with the snow shoe and realized that we had been on a different and much more challenging climb. The GPS wasn't recording our mileage right (but it did work to get us back in the right direction), but I think it must have been about 4 miles, about 2,000 feet up.
It was really fun, but I have to get over my fear of being lost in the woods.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Sniff sniff....still no snow here.

BUT....I did have a "snowshoe day" in that I went to a 3 hour snowshoe "class" at a local conservation land and two women spoke about different types of snowshoes, a little about SS (snowshoe) history, and then we all strung the webbing by hand on little 14" bent ash wood frame snowshoes. It was FUN to learn the interesting waffle weave pattern and the knots- it was sort of like caning a chair. We used nylon laces, but once you shellac them when you're done they look amazingly like old sinew ones. One shoe took the whole time up (it was somewhat complicated weaving) but I look forward to lacing up the other little shoe at home here and finishing them and then shellacking them. I want to put them up somewhere on the wall- they are too cute! I'll post a picture when they're all done.

The next conservation-sponsored SS event is not until Feb 19th, and that's an actual outing so everyone is really hoping for some snow cover on the ground by then. Then on Feb 21 is a nightime full moon excursion on conservation land- either snowshoeing or hiking if there is no snow. Cool.

I love hearing about everyone else's SS adventures!

[surgtech1956]

How do you gals that wear glasses keep them from 'fogging' up? I think next time I am going to wear my contacts(don't wear them anymore, since my 'progressive lenses' - I gave up my contacts when my food starting getting too blurry)

[Crankin]

I wear contacts and sunglasses most of the time when I ski or snow shoe. There's stuff called Cat Cr*p (really) that you can buy at just about any sporting goods store that stops the fogging.

On a side note, why don't you just get reading glasses to wear over your contacts? That way, you don't have to have glasses on all of the time. I have a pair of progressives for the rare times I have my contacts out; I don't necessarily keep the prescription up to date, since I only wear them reading in bed.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I wear my glasses all the time. When I'm out biking or snowshoeing I wear some sunglasses that go right over my eyeglasses. They are called "fitovers". They look like regular sunglasses, but i like the way they protect my glasses and also keep them insulated against fogging, pebbles, bugs, wind, etc.
I wear these:
http://www.eagleeyes.com/products/staclips/fitons.lasso

[Wahine]

I was supposed to go to a friend's place today and learn to make naan. While the naan was rising we were supposed to go snowshoeing around her pear orchard.

But we got sooooooooooo much snow last night it was too dangerous to drive. That's saying a lot coming from me. So we ended up snowshoeing around our little town. That was pretty funny. We saw all kinds of cars literally buried, you couldn't see any actual car, just a big lump in the snow and 2 accidents from people trying to go someplace when they should have stayed home.

We had fun. But I'm going to have to pay an extra day on the snow shoe rental... I can't get them back into town.

[Crankin]

We had about 8 inches of beautiful powder yesterday. I went snow shoeing today for the first time in a month. We went to some trails that are usually good only right after a storm and the conditions were perfect. It looked like a winter wonderland; some of trails had unbroken snow and it was work! We only did about 2.2 miles, but almost all of it was climbing; at least 2/3.
It's funny, I have been hiking, skiing, mountain biking, and snow showing in this place, but it looks different for each sport.
Of course, afterwards we went and had a nice big mocha latte (with skim milk)...

[PAP103]

Here are some pictures from my snow shoe adventure at Ipswich Wildlife Sanctuary. We had a beautiful day and the birds were out feeding!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&x=0&y=-cxmd0r

[Miranda]

OK, I'm enjoying reading this thread, and seriously considering some ss gear. I have a bit of buyer's remorse with my xc skiis I got last year, and also with my recent rink skates. I hate that.

Sooo, my question is, from what I read, it is "better" to have heavier duty snow shoes, vs lesser ones. It increases your terrain options. However...

How much flat snow do you need to not get hung up on the heavier ones? Like the bottom claw thingys (sorry, really techinical term I know, or need the crampons, etc.).

I don't want it to be total overkill, but it's upsetting having wasted money for being "under-geared" even MORE so I think. That, I want to avoid a repeat of.

Thx!