On Sunday, Sarah and I went for our first snowshoe hike together, at Frances Slocum State Park. The park roads were snow-covered, so we did not venture down the big hill to the lake. Instead, we decided to hike a portion of the Deer Trail. Sarah wasn’t feeling too well, so we only did a short hike.

First steps, and a big smile

Shadows

Some other hikers had already gone through, some with snowshoes, some without, so we were not blazing our own trail. We saw a group of hikers without snowshoes and they were doing OK, but the snowshoes definitely worked to our advantage, especially in a few tricky sections. Unfortunately, the trail was not well marked and we got off track. We eventually found our way, although there was one section of trail we never did find. As we were wandering around, a couple of deer bounded across the trail ahead of us.

We made our way down to a beautiful creek. The rocks were covered with snow, but water was flowing through the creek, leaving bits of snow sticking up here and there.

Looking down at the creek

The wind blows snow down from the trees

Trail

The creek crossing was tricky, and Sarah was not amused. However, she did a great job and I think secretly had fun doing it.

Sarah, crossing the creek

The trail more or less followed the creek for a few minutes. We reached a footbridge and decided to turn around.

Me

The creek

Bridge

Another view of the creek

We lost the trail for a few minutes, and blazed our own. It’s a lot easier to have off-trail excursions like this when there’s a bunch of snow on the ground. You can walk right over a lot of debris, shrubs, etc.

Rocks in the creek

Our own trail

Sarah, smiling during the creek crossing

Creek icicles

Light

Curly root (taken by Sarah)

Sarah, a near sunset behind her

Frances Slocum Lake

Stairs

It was a great way to spend a couple of hours in the snow together. Sarah did a great job her first time  snowshoeing, and I enjoyed my second such outing.

File under: Hiking, Sarah, Snow, Snowshoeing