Snowshoeing the bike trail

Day 1 (2/9/14)

Off to the Trail

Last week we decided to brave the cold and take a walk out on the bike trail. It has been a very cold winter, even for Wisconsin, and hard getting outside to enjoy winter. Last week we wished we had taken our snow shoes. Even though the snow was passable in some areas there were three or four foot drifts in others. After another cold week the temperature was up to 10 degrees and sunny when I got out of bed this morning with a smattering of new snow, a perfect day for snowshoeing. I devised harnesses for carrying our snowshoes out to the trail and set out. When we got to the bike trail we put our shoes on and set out. After about two hundred yards we were already getting tired from the change of motion but an hour later we didn’t want to stop. Soon after getting on the bike trail we found a trail going down into the swamp where some earlier shoer’s had gone and decided to follow it. It followed a ridge that led through an area which wouldn’t be easily accessible in the summer. Eventually it dropped down into a valley with a stream meandering through it. It is always fun to find a little piece of almost untouched nature so close to town. Although we mostly followed the tracks of the other snowshoers we did break off and do a bit of our own exploring. After several hours, much to our chagrin, we decided we had better go home because we had company coming for dinner. We are already planning to get out again next weekend and plan for a daylong outing. We laughed at how tired we seemed at the beginning and how disappointed we were that we couldn’t continue hours later. It is amazing what finding a new area to explore can do for a persons stamina.

Sunspot Baby

New Trail

Nice Birches

Bird swoop?

Drift Climbing

Time to go Home