Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

Despite waking up to minus 6 degrees temperature, I realized it is never too cold – and we are never too old – for a new adventure!

Thankfully the mercury rose to a balmy 20 degrees so my friend Cindy and I could keep our very important appointment! Yup, today was the inaugural snowshoeing adventure. One small step for veteran Cindy and one giant leap for newbie Robyn.

We are so fortunate to live near a groomed snowshoeing trail! Nepco Lake is not even 10 minutes away and features separate trails for snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and snowmobiles. 

Decked out in our new boots, we put on the snowshoes and hit the trail!

The key was dressing in layers. Long underwear type tights and leggings on the bottom, wool "sports" socks, a shirt, fleece and sweatshirt on top, and a hat and gloves.

Besides looking good, haha, we discovered we had exactly enough layers. Not cold at all and not sweating. And we stayed dry because the trails were good and I did not fall on my face or backside as expected.

Honestly, the shoes were not too tough to get used to. Just had pretend I was walking and before I knew it, I did not have to concentrate on each step. I could just enjoy the view!

The trail took us around the park and near the "beach." You can see one ice shanty in the distance. There were lots of people on the lake today and on the trails.

The snow this week helped set the scene, that's for sure.

The loop we followed for an hour or so led us on some different levels, too. Here we are standing on the creek bed looking up to the ridge we had just walked across not 10 minutes before. So we were getting some decent exercise, that's for sure.

And if we needed someone to come pick us up, we just had to blow this whistle. Actually, we're not sure if that's why it was just hanging around. Thankfully we didn't need it.

Saw some pretty post-Christmas Christmas trees.

And every little branch doing its best to hold up the recent ice and snow.

This one was buckling under the weight a bit!

Just pretty archways and pathways.

It sure would have been an ugly, boring walk without the snow. Who am I kidding? I guess you kind of need snow to snowshoe anyway! But it had been icy on the trails a week ago. So we timed it right and now, I am sure, we have plenty of winter left to do it more!

It was fitting that we ran into some friends toward the end of our journey so we could get our picture taken! Still smiling when it was over. Will have to see what, if anything, hurts tomorrow!

Hoping nothing so I can find a reason to actually like winter.

Have some fun out there!