It’s been snowing a lot recently, and while most people around here are sick of it already, I’m actually enjoying it. I have no place I need to drive to, so I don’t have to deal with slippery roads and bad traffic, and I have SNOWSHOES.
I got to go out twice this past week. Thursday my first snowshoe of the season. The weather was beautiful, sunny and temperatures in the high 30s the day after a storm.
I walked down a stretch of Patriot’s Path near my parents’ house, which is always well-maintained. Someone even decorated one of the trees with Christmas ornaments. I’ve run that trail more times than I could possibly count, but it’s so much more fun in the snow because I don’t have to run through giant puddles.
I went out after lunch with my ipod, big red headphones, and a thermos of tea. Aside from a few cross-country skiers and their accompanying snow dogs, I spent most of my time in complete solitude. The snow was too deep and powdery for good skiing, so I moved much faster than they could.
Thursday was my very first time snowshoeing all alone. It’s so nice to stand on crisp white snow and see nothing but winter wonderland in all directions. It’s also a pretty decent workout, and much more pleasant than trying to run on snow or ice.
Today Eli and I went to REI because they advertised a group snowshoeing hike at Pyramid Mountain, but when we asked customer service staff they told us that we needed to reserve spots with Morris County Parks department and that REI only provided snowshoe rentals for the event. So we decided to head over to Pyramid Mountain ourselves with our own snowshoes, except when we arrived it was such an atrocious mob scene that we turned right around. The parking lot was packed and cars lined the side streets. No thank you.
Eli lives right on the edge of a wildlife reservation, so we hiked around his backyard for an hour or so. We followed animal tracks and found deer beds. Then we came upon a pond that was covered in human tracks and had a big hole in the ice where one might have fallen in. The snow was awesome. Wet and crunchy. Perfect for building a snowman, or a giant snake.
After a busy day of shopping (I scored a $300 rain jacket at REI’s members-only garage sale for only $40! The zipper is damaged, but so what?), driving all over north jerz, animal tracking, and sculpting, I’m pretty beat. I ended the day with a nice long bubble bath, candles, and jazz music. Life is goooood.
sounds like an AWESOME day!