Our First Snowshoeing Adventure

The weekend after we got back from sunny Hawaii we headed for the snowy hills of the Cascade Mountains. My running club has a "snow day" every year where members meet in North Bend and head to a snow park for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. I was really looking forward to this little day trip. On my 30 Before 30 list I had written down that I wanted to go snowshoeing. But I was too nervous to do it on my own. So I was really happy that I knew people who knew what they were doing and could show us where to go. (That's right - us! Robb had been interested in snowshoeing too and was able to take the day off and go with me.) We rented a couple pairs of snowshoes from REI the day before the trip and got up early the next day to head to the mountains.

As I recall, the weather was pretty good. We had an unseasonably warm and dry winter, and that day was warm enough that we didn't need heavy coats. The problem with the dry winter though was it hadn't snowed in quite some time, which meant there was less fresh powder (which I'm told makes snowshoeing more fun.) Our group kind of got separated into two and we found ourselves with a group that snowshoed along the John Wayne Trail. I think this part of the trail used to be train tracks, which allowed for a lot of room and a clear path. With hindsight, we think it would have been more fun to snowshoe through the woods and make our own trails, but as this was our first trip, I was a little nervous about leaving the trail by ourselves.

We really did enjoy ourselves and wouldn't mind owning our own snowshoes and doing this more in the future. So if anyone wants to provide a random gift, keep that in mind!