In our continuing quest to get out of the house more, do more things, and try to stay more fit, my wife and I added a new hobby - we bought ourselves some snowshoes.
As with our kayaks, she went for a "girlie" color - powder blue, and of course I got the far more "manly" red.
This past weekend, we had plenty of snow on the ground, the weather was sunny, not too cold, and almost no wind, so we went outside to try them.
On Saturday, we trekked the suburban wilderness of our back yard and surrounding woods for a few hours. Not bad, once we got used to them. Our neighbors looked at us oddly as we walked on top of the 5-6 foot high mounds of new snow in front of the house, but it's not the first time they've gotten a chuckle from us.
On Sunday, we drove to nearby Lexington, and walked (snowshoed?) along part of the Lexington Minuteman Trail. A few others were there as well - either snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. The trail has some nice scenery, and a few interesting markers along the way. And we didn't have to break our own trail unless we wanted to; when we got tired, we could just follow the trail of others for an easier walk.
It was a lot of fun, and pretty good exercise, too. Seems like a nice new weekend activity when the winter weather isn't too forbidding.
This article originally appeared in my blog: All Things Quality
 | My name is Joe Strazzere and I'm currently a Director of Quality Assurance. I like to lead, to test, and occasionally to write about leading and testing. Find me at http://strazzere.blogspot.com/. |
Hi Joe. I tried showshoeing for the first time this year with my son, through the Special Olympics group where he participates and I coach / help out. The group here in Oxford, CT (near New Haven and Milford) is pretty active, with a large participation, cycling through a number of different sports throughout the year.
ReplyDeleteIronically, with the crazy winter we have been having here in the Northeast, showshoeing has been cancelled 3 out of the 5 sessions so far due to snow or snow related issues. We start at a school gym, and use their sports fields. But if the school is closed we don't get evening access to the building.
Yes, it is fun. But I have to say after all the hassles the snow has caused during the week it is a challenge to gear up on a Friday night, after the sun is down and the temp. dropped 20 degress, for a leisure activity - in the snow. A sunny Saturday morning would be a different story.
But the kids seems to love it. Guess I have to man-up for tonight ...
Too much snow for the snowshoeing? Funny!
ReplyDeleteI used my snowshoes last weekend to walk around the house and scrape snow off the roof using my snow rake.
I'll take a sunny Saturday morning over a cold Friday night any day. Then again, I still prefer the Spring.