Snowshoeing

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Good for you, Annie! Keep shoeing.

I went snowshoeing again today for 2 hours. I stayed quite warm and dry despite it being about 10 degreesF out. Good gear is everything!
I followed some trails through the nature conservancy woods leading to a frozen pond. Got to watch a beautiful pileated woodpecker hammering away on a tree only a few yards away. He didn't seem bothered by my presence at all. There were several other sets of snowshoe tracks through the woods besides mine.


Oh, one thing I noticed about the snow- our big snowfall (18") happened a few days ago. Today I noticed that in areas where the sun hit (fields), there is a hard crust now on the snow surface that you have to crunch in your shoes. But when shoeing through the woods today, there was no crust- all the snow was still light and fluffy (except on the packed down trails of course). So just because there may be an ice crust on the snow when you go out in your yard to look at it, it might still be some wonderful fluffy snow if you try some trails through the woods. I guess even the bare branches manage to keep the sun from making crusts.

[LBTC]

Lisa and Annie, those both sound like magical experiences! yay!

One of our recent snowshoeing ventures this month we went on a trail we hadn't seen before and the snow was deep and fresh beside the well tramped trail. Someone ahead of us had paused several times on the way and written words in the snow: like peace, joy, jubilation, magic, sacred sanctuary, etc. It was very cool - it added to the magic of the moment for me.

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[annie]

LBTC, Lisa,

So glad to hear you had wonderful shoeing, also. I'll have to shoe vicariously through you now. Our temps hit 46 F. today. Snow was melting and soaking into the ground. It's not gone yet, but our predicted temps are above freezing all week. Plus a day or two of rain. So much for the snow. It's possible we'd get enough for another round, but unlikely. So enjoy it while you can, I say. And look forward to biking season soon! Yay! It's all good.

Annie

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We will shoe for you Annie!!

And yeah, won't it be great when biking season starts again?
You'll be biking long before we get to, I bet!

[annie]

We got more snow!! Slushy, sloppy wet snow, but snow, nonetheless! So I was out with the snowshoes again today. Let me tell you, shoeing through wet, heavy snow is one he## of a workout!! I am beat. I loved it. How's your snow, ladies?

Annie

[LBTC]

snow in town here is disappearing rapidly, which I love as I wait to see what bulbs are poking out of the ground! I'm sure the trails we go to still have good snow, but we didn't go this weekend or last for several reasons, or are those excuses?

Keep enjoying while you have it!

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

The snow from 10 days ago is getting pretty lame- the woodland trails are so packed down. We visited frineds an hour away this weekend and I brought my shoes and they have some too, but their snow situation was worse than ours was, so none of us went shoeing.
But there is maybe an inch or two in the forecast over the next few days here, and if we get a new fresh surface I'll go out again. The forcast is odd for this week, and it actually could go either way between shoeing and biking! I'll be watching the weather.

I guess I've been shoeing about 4 times total, all on just that one big snowfall we've had so far this winter, 10 days ago or so. It would be freaky if that's all the snow we get this winter!!

[PAP103]

We're expecting 18-24" of snow in Maine tonight and Friday!!! I'm on vacation next week and will be in Maine the whole time. Its also a full moon this weekend. I'm going to try for a moonlight snowshoe. Can't wait!!!!

Think snow....

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Pap, you lucky girl!!

We are supposed to get 3-5" of mixed snow and freezing rain with sleet tonight and tomorrow. Doesn't sound too nice, but perhaps it will all be snow instead and we'll get lucky. Weathermen are not always right.

Tell us about your snowshoeing afterwards!

[cosc]

I went shoeing at a park a couple days ago and so enjoyed a calm peaceful outdoors. Temps was 29 with no wind. Next time I'll bring my dog, since I saw nary a person (or another dog). Usually when I go hike the park there is lots of people and dogs for my rat terrier to visit so I always keep her on a leesh.
Winter weather does have some advantages. We have a blizzard today. No more nice snow to shoe in -just high winds to blow what we already have on the ground. If it has to be cold, I hope all the snowshoers receive some nice amounts of snow.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

3" on the ground so far, with 8-20" predicted by Saturday night.
It's snowing like mad, but it's almost dark. Dusting off the trusty snowshoes for tomorrow morning!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

OK, so we got a deep 16" of great snow last night, no ice or sleet.
I snowshoed about a mile through the woods on a trail. But I actually was the only one to break that trail today (everyone else probably quit being outside after shoveling out today), and believe me, it was HARD!!! All that deep powdery snow- I sank about EIGHT inches down with every step, and had to really lift my legs REALLY high for every step. I even had to cross several streams over a narrow board in my snowshoes! I found out it is not easy to tightrope walk in snowshoes. Although the whole trip was about only a mile, it seemed like more work than a 30 mile bike ride.

By the time I made it to my destination (a wooden bench overlooking an icey pond) my legs were shaking and rubbery, and my heart was pounding despite having rested briefly several times on the way. I brushed the snow off the bench and lay down on my back to rest a good long while. Man that felt good. When I looked up overhead, the sky was white and the black tree branches were all reaching towards the center of the bench clearing, it looked like a giant black lacey snowflake pattern in the sky over me, and i was right in the middle of the snowflake. Very beautiful. The woods were silent except for some woodpeckers and the streams babbling.

Going back over my own trail was a whole different story, if I kept to my own footprints I only sank about an inch this time- BIG difference, and much easier and more fun. I was glad to get back home. Tomorrow will be easier to do the same trail again. I expect to see some other prints on the trail tomorrow, maybe crosscountry ski tracks or even other snowshow tracks, like I've seen before. It's fun to guess from the snowshoe tracks whether it was a woman or a man who had passed on the trail, and what brand shoes they had. Makes me feel like a real tracker.

Here's a picture from today- we had already shoveled off the porch and paths, and unfortunately the wind had removed the pretty snow from the trees. But I climbed our little "Mt.Everest" for fun, where the snowplow guy had dumped some of the snow this morning. So there I am showing off on "the summit" in my snowshoes, just about to go out into the woods. -I didn't look quite so energetic by the time I got back, however!

[LBTC]

Woohoo! Serious snow! and good for you for getting out there even though it was so hard!

And the black snowflake imagery was very cool. Aren't moments like that the whole reason we do these things?

Today I put the snowshoes in the shed, and we rode our BIKES. Spring is sprung! (sorry to rub it in).

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[Crankin]

I had the same experience as Lisa today. Went on a 3.5 mile snow shoe, and it was really hard, just walking on a relatively flat trail. Most of it, you could walk on top of the frozen crust, but in other places, you sank down and had to really work to step up. Usually this trail is 4.3 miles, but my friends were tired, so we turned around and went out for cafe mochas instead...
Hopefully, I will be on my bike Thursday or Friday.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Went out along the same woodland trail today for about an hour and a half, but took the longer uphill loop. I followed some big man's snowshoe tracks, which was not always easy because he took much longer strides than I can, but still it was easier than breaking another new trail. No crust at all here, still very deep 15" inches of soft snow in the woods.

The trail is about 8 feet wide through this reserve. Yesterday I was the only one to leave a trail through the reserve, and I followed my own trail back again, leaving lots of space on either side for x-country skiers to make their own pristine trails if they wanted. Today I saw that this man in snowshoes had rather inconsiderately made a mess of the whole trail- he shoe'd all the way in making a big trail to one side of mine, leaving giant deep footholes....and then on the way back he shoe'd on the OTHER side of my trail instead of using his own trail back! Thus, in place of one snowshoe track, there were now THREE and the whole 8' wide trail was covered with deep huge shoe holes everywhere- those X-country skiiers are not going to be happy- and I don't blame them at all! It was ugly looking too. Why did this fellow do that??
I saw today that an animal had made use of my snowshoe trail from yesterday- for a long distance there was a trail in my yesterday's footprints of what looked like a cross between a large cat and a small very lightweight dog- I concluded it was a fox. Looked like dog prints but very small, dainty and pointy. No French poodles would be out there, for sure!
I got really thirsty midway out. I could not resist drinking from a stream, and I crawled to the edge on my tummy in the snow so I wouldn't break through to the mushy edges. I didn't want to scoop the water with my hands and make them too cold. I felt very "wild" lying on my stomach in the woods slurping from the rushing stream with my mouth...

Because the snow was a bit wetter today (no crust though) and I was able to use previous footprints much of the time, it was not as grueling as yesterday's trail breaking. Still a good workout though, for legs and heart. I'm getting faster at getting my shoes strapped on and off.