Wednesday, December 17, 2008

First Snowshoing of the Season

















































I am happy to report that I went out about two hours before sunset for my first snowshoing of what will most likely be a long season of snowshoing. Pretty good snow the other day brought fresh "powder," and I headed out to Seven Mile Creek "to shoe" the horse trail parts of that park. The best part about shoing the horse trails is that you don't have to worry about cross country ski tracks or messing those up, since most CC skiers use previous tracks so they don't have to bust new ones. Plus, the horse trails offer better hills to go up, which means you get to go down them on the way back. Going down steep hills on snowshoes is absolutely exhilirating.

I'd never shoed Seven Mile Creek before though I have done some fly fishing there and have enjoyed boozy picinics with friends who hosted summer birthday get-togethers there. This was my first time there alone. My first time there in the winter. It was kind of spritual in a way to just head up trails following deer tracks, since I doubt anybody smart enough and rich enough to figure out how to keep a horse in dark economic times is willing to chance that horse busting a leg on steep, snowy hills. A friend of mine lent me a digital camera for this excursion with my word that I would not drop it in the snow. I babied that camera and double checked that it was safely zipped in my vest pocket as if was an animal I was house sitting for. All turned out for the camera though it got a little cold. No harm. No foul.
In that picture I am wearing five layers. I was 2 degrees F and dropping rapidly as the sun went down. There wasn't any wind so it wasn't that bad.

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