Snowshoeing....Without The Snow...and the Snowshoes

Yesterday I decided to finally get off my butt and do some exercise and with the heavy winds it really wasn't in the cards for me to try to jump on the bike and head outside. So I decided to snowshoe instead and knew that it might be difficult with the snow melt that we had Friday and Saturday but figured I'd give it a whirl anyways. I headed over to the park by my house where there are some nice trails in the woods and thought that maybe there'd be enough snow in the woods to actually be able to use the snowshoes. Well, it turned out I was half right as I made my way around for the first loop, there was enough snow in only some spots but for the most part the path was either completely iced over or pretty barren as far as snow goes. I decided to hoof it without the snowshoes and just laced up the hiking boots and gatorz and took off in to the woods. I was the only person in the whole park so it was a wonderful 90 minute jaunt to take in the serenity of the day without other human noise to muck it up. My only other visitor on the path was a stray Doberman Pinscher that was walking on the path ahead of me. He did not have an owner with him, he was basically enjoying the day walking through the woods by himself. I stopped in my tracks when I saw him and let him get ahead of me a bit but I did eventually follow him and kept my distance before he turned off towards some houses about a mile down the trail. He was a big boy and no doubt I would've been seen as either a play companion or lunch if he would've seen me. I had my poles with me so I was ready to defend myself if needed, thankfully it didn't come to that. The only other real adventure of the day was when I had to traverse a river crossing, it was quite dangerous, I almost got my feet wet when I hopped over it, it was nearly a rapids to say the least.


THE RAPIDS - Don't try this at home kids!!!




SOME SNOW - It was still pretty hard packed though

NEW BERLIN ICE FLATS - I needed my poles to keep me from slipping out

Not A Lot Going On

Just thought I'd give an update even though I really have nothing to say, it's been a crappy winter, about the same as last year with the snow. No riding of late, basically been sitting on my butt getting fatter again. I hope to get out and snowshoe this weekend but it will be a busy weekend getting the house ready for the wife's family on Christmas Eve. That's about it for now, barely worth the effort to type it but figured I would anyways. Happy Holidays.

Winter Days Are Here Again

Well, winter weather is certainly here to stay, no road riding on the horizon any time soon. It might be good enough to get the mountain bike out after the roads are cleared but the forecast is calling for more snow later in the week, and part of the weekend. That means that I get to take out the snowshoes this weekend and hit the local trails for the first time since probably February or early March. I'm excited to get out in the woods and enjoy the solitude for an hour or two, last year I was almost always the only one out there, it was great. Maybe I can get my wife out there this weekend, we have a busy weekend planned with some cleaning for X-mas, but I'm sure we can spare the time. Other than that, I've been hitting the weights on a regular basis, although I missed two days in the last two weeks due to working late and then just not feeling it one day. I'm actually feeling stronger with the weights this year than I was last year at this time, I'm about 10lbs higher for each exercise and it feels noticeably easier. I rode the rollers last night and will be riding again tonight after shoveling, which looks like it's going to suck as the snow that is coming down is of the wet, heavy variety. If I don't throw my back out I'll do just an hour on the rollers again and watch more of stage 13 of Le Tour since I started it last night, and I DVRed the whole 5 hours of coverage so I have enough to ride most of the week just watching one stage. That's about it for now, it's Potluck Lunch today at work so I've got wings, chili, BBQ, roast beef, cheese and sausage, chips, soda, etc. to munch on today, I'll try to keep the fat intake to a minimum but it will be difficult.