Snowshoeing

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We got another decent snowstorm last night/this morning (probably about 8 or 10 inches here; I didn't measure so that's a guesstimate) so I decided to snowshoe this afternoon at the same place I did last time. I was surprised and rather disappointed to find already a well-broken trail (boy does this place get a lot of traffic!), but once I reached the brook crossing I noticed that the trail beyond it had not been broken. This is probably because said brook crossing was a little tricky given the recent thaw and resulting lack of thick ice--it was a matter of carefully stepping/jumping from rock to rock. Once I got across, the shoeing became more of a workout which is what I was looking for. I also felt like less of a klutz this time!

Oooohh, you are lucky to get such a nice snow! 8'10" is great because it's enough to do some great snowshoeing for a few days, but not so much that you have to spend your day shoveling endlessly instead of enjoying the snow.

What kind of snowshoes do you have?

We only got about 4" the night before last- not enough to shoe. I even had a shoeing date set up with a girlfriend and with DH, too. I think Western Mass got lots more snow than we did, just to the east of us.

Got all these brand spanking new snowshoes just hanging here waiting....can't wait to go out with DH, and him shoeing for the first time too!

[Jolt]

Oooohh, you are lucky to get such a nice snow! 8'10" is great because it's enough to do some great snowshoeing for a few days, but not so much that you have to spend your day shoveling endlessly instead of enjoying the snow.

What kind of snowshoes do you have?

We only got about 4" the night before last- not enough to shoe. I even had a shoeing date set up with a girlfriend and with DH, too. I think Western Mass got lots more snow than we did, just to the east of us.

Got all these brand spanking new snowshoes just hanging here waiting....can't wait to go out with DH, and him shoeing for the first time too!

I have Yukon Charlie's snowshoes--nothing fancy. I have the women's 8X25 inch size; I could have gone with the smaller size but figured the bigger ones would be better on group hikes when we each take a turn breaking trail for everyone else!

[Lifesgreat]

AuntieK, a friend and I snowshoed at Sundance Resort today. There is FEET of snow on the ground with a packed trail winding through the woods. AK and friend are in much better shape than I am so they went awhile longer than I did. A storm passed through but it didn't really snow, the wind just BLEW! I had a great time. I would attach pictures, but I don't know how to reduce the picture file size. I need to put that on my "to do" list.

[Crankin]

Yesterday I went out on the trail that leads from my street to the local conservation land. It had been walked on, but not with snowshoes. So the snow was still deep and soft. However, I took a wrong turn and realized I was heading up a climb, so I turned onto what I thought was the trail, but somehow it was a loop and I ended up at the start. OK, I went back and figured out my mistake. It was really nice, but the last storm had knocked down several trees and there were branches bending over, touching the ground. I could see the trail markers, but it was hard to see the trail! Near the intersection of the neighborhood trail and the main one, it got very tight and I felt like I was bushwacking. However, I made it and went up to the town line in Acton, near Stoneymeade. I didn't walk all the way to the end of the trail there, but I ran around in the horse pasture, in the fresh, untouched snow. That was fun. On the way back, I didn't have any trouble finding my way, but I decided to climb up what is called the "ski slope" in my neighborhood. This is a trail that ends up in a vacant lot about two houses down the street from me. I thought I would avoid a longer walk up the street, carrying my snow shoes. Oye! The town maps say this is a 35% grade. I have climbed up it once before, in hiking shoes when it was kind of icy. Let's just say my upper body was almost parallel to the ground. I didn't have poles, which would have helped. But, I made it. I thought I felt OK until this morning when I went x country skiing. My muscles were not happy and I was really off the whole time. I fell down a hill that I always easily go down and then, on the way back, I went over a rough patch on the trail, when I knew I should have gone out of the tracks. My ski hit a rock and I fell on my knee. Now I'm sitting here with an ice pack and I am about to sit in a hot tub.
But it feels good to feel good enough to do this stuff...

[AuntieK]

I had a lot of fun snowshoeing with Lifesgreat! We're tentatively planning another trip next week. Here's a pic of us all (LG, me, & Spinster).

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, what a lot of great snowshoeing posts to read and enjoy!!

Robyn- don't overdue it- take a rest day between hard workouts....but you probably know that already..

Auntie K- are those Tubbs "Odyssey" women's snowshoes I spy on you?? If so, they are exactly the same as my shoes!!

We still have a lousy 2" of snow on the ground, and no decent snow predicted over the next fews days.

[Crankin]

Yes, I should have rested yesterday, but it didn't look like there would be any other good days for me to go before my trip to Vermont next week. I am going to go to spin class tonight and use very light resistance. My knee isn't that bad today, just a little stiff. I will be working all day, so I won't have time to think about it.
It's going to be SO cold this weekend...

[AuntieK]

Auntie K- are those Tubbs "Odyssey" women's snowshoes I spy on you?? If so, they are exactly the same as my shoes!!

Yes, I believe they are. At least I know they're Tubbs. I'll have to check on the "Odyssey" part next time I go (they are rentals). But, at least I'll know what to buy once it's time to invest. I do like them.

[surgtech1956]

Finally enough snow to go snowshoeing this morning. It was about 20 degrees(F) and snowing lightly. I wore my nylon snowpants -lightly insulated, a polyester LS tee, a North Face fleece(fleece 100) top and a light waterproof/breathable jacket, my REI balaclava, my Goretex all leather hiking boots, wool socks and gaitors. We went about 3 miles on a slightly packed trail. I wasn't too warm, but I was tired that last mile. It was great. Tomorrow we're going cross country skiing.

[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