After a rather quiet start, we (Ok, thats an I, as no one else turned up :( ) started out at 08:40 for my first outing on snow shoes.
Had a great morning tramping around the mountain. Made it to Mt Hyak first, then on towards Hidden valley, but the snow started to run out on the way down hidden valley, so I didnt go down as far as I had planned.
Just after turning back, I met up with Don Brooks on his XC ski's, and we walked back up towards the radio tower together, before he dissapeared downhill, but not before we had a great discussion about XC skiing, and he suggested I head up towards Grand Junction to check out the trail.
That was a great suggestion, and another really nice trail, and I bumped into a whole line of snowshoe'rs coming down as I went up.
I left Grand Junction around 12:10, and was back in the car ready to go by 13:05 :)
Overall, an excellent way to spend 4.5 hours on Sunday mng.
Snow conditions varied from VERY wet and heavy at the parking lot level, with 12-24" of snow, to relatively less wet and heavy at the top of Mt Hyak, and Grand Junction.
Although much of the trail had been already broken, most of it was from previous days, and the snowshoe footprints must have been made by someone with a gargantuan stride (which is most people, when compared to my diminutive 5'7" :) ) So I ended breaking trail most of the way.
I didnt appreciate how much difference this made until I started to head back, and had my own footprints to retrace - WOW now that's much easier :)
Anyway, I had a great time, and hope to see some more of you next Sunday for my first outing on XC ski's :)
I'll post details later in the week, but its probably going to be same time, same place next week :)
Cheers
Steve
Ps.
I only fell over 3 times :) first time was when I stopped to talk to Don, and almost fell on him, then last 2 where within a few hundred yds from the car, while negotiating hidden streams.
PPs.
My MSR snow shoes where absolutely awesome, I had some trouble with my left foot to begin with due to overtightening one binding strap, but once I adjusted that, they where great :)