If you can’t beat winter, join it: our snowshoeing adventure

One Saturday after a recent snowfall, we joined some friends for some snowshoeing at Humber. We’ve gone snowshoeing before, but only for a very short walk—much like just trying out the snowshoes. This time, we decided we could manage a short trail since DD#2 had already previously managed several hikes (even in Colombia!). Hubby was sick but since I promised the girls we would go, I decided to brave it out and still take the girls minus my child-care-partner. If you have girls, you would know how a trip to the washroom can be an ordeal. Imagine having to go in snow gear! At the end of that washroom trip, I was already tired and warm enough not to NEED snow gear! Oh well.

the trails--that's how far the rest of the group was from us, the slowpokes

So, we tried on some snowshoes. The girls got some of what they called, “bear paws” (the more modern ones) and I got the traditional “beaver tail” ones. The shoes took quite a while to get used to—we were stepping on each other’s snowshoes! But when we got to the trails, we started to get the hang of it. The snow was quite packed at the time we trekked so we weren’t reaping the full benefits of the snowshoes—not sinking into the snow. But it was still fun!

Chickadee

Along the way, our guide gave us some birdseed and we fed some chickadees! The girls were very thrilled. I, meanwhile, was holding out some birdseed on one hand and a camera on the other and not quite paying attention. A chickadee landed on my hand and it surprised me so much I had to stifle a scream! The other hikers gave me some weird looks, so I sheepishly fiddled with my camera. I guess it really was a bit weird. After all, we were all there trying to get the chickadees to land on our hands and there I was scaring off the birds!

feeding Chickadees

Can you spot the owl?

We saw some other birds and a couple of owls during our hour-long hike. We did not see any deer, though. All in all, it was a good activity, something that made us enjoy snow instead of curse it. Some nice hot chocolate back at the centre was the perfect end to this adventure! The girls even had seconds!