Sunday, January 22, 2012

Lovely, lovely day

The first snowshoe of the season this morning! Do you realize how strange it is for me to write that sentence on the 22nd of January? And the fact is, we have just had our first snow of any depth and staying power.


Thanks to accuweather, we chose the perfect hour to go. The sun was peeking through the clouds, the temperature was closing in on its high for the day, and we had a lovely time. Wore three layers plus a shell more for wind protection than for temperature. Boots were stiff. We leave our snowshoes hanging outside the back door with the boots in them. So Simple that way! Just walk out, put them on and go. Except for the first time. Boots were stiff, feet and toes felt funny and squeezed in. Dean did fine. And as soon as I started to walk all was ok. There for a moment though I wondered.


The snow was from 4 inches on the deck to probably 9 up the hill. Dean didn’t have to blaze the trail although he did go ahead of me because I am just slower than he is and my legs are shorter. We wandered. That is one of the nice things about snowshoeing - you can go places you couldn’t go on a regular walk because the snow covers roots and logs and rocks. Even just 9 inches makes the going easier. And so we wandered through the woods, up to a high point with a spectacular lake vista. Sorry - no pictures. We both forgot cameras and our cameras could not have done justice to it anyway. So just imagine:


The lake stretches across your entire range of vision. There are pine trees to look through and around. The sky is grey ergo so is the lake. No white caps and you can tell it is roiling with the coming storm. Here and there the sun against a clear blue sky shows through the clouds, in dramatic and striking contrast. The mountains across the lake stand out against the grey sky and a couple of them are covered with the cloud of advancing snow. We breathe in clear, clean air. And as we descend the hill toward home, the aroma of the air changes a bit ~ it smells like snow ~ and as we close the door behind us and move into the warmth of the house, the snow starts to fall again. Perfect.

2 comments:

Jim Thompson said...

Sounds awesome. Just awesome. I thought last year's snow ruined me on any more snow, but your description sounded too peaceful to miss. I won't go as far as to wish for snow, but maybe I won't start grumbling at the TV when the storms are forecasted.

Tahoe Mom said...

heheheheh - you sound like me. I told Dean early in my life here, I couldn't bring myself to pray for snow but I wouldn't pray against him. :) Of course this year, this is our first snow so as I have said here before our economy is hurting. Glad to have the slopes really open finally.