Sunday 15 February
Distance: 17 km
Time: 3.5 hours
Avg speed: 5 km/h
Total distance to date: 617.5 km
Distance to go: 267.5 km
Dis-snow-llusionment
Snowshoe running on hard, refrozen crust after the previous week’s thaw made for faster progress. I gotta say though, sunny winter days are better spent schussing than trudging.
Running (I use the term liberally) on snowshoes is like being inside the guts of a Zamboni. Raquettes (oh so onomatopoeically named by the French) kick up a helluva lot of snow. That’s how Ranger the Indefatigable Snowdog gets the cute white stripe on his nose. I get a similar stripe from my waist to my toes. I tied my jacket around my waist and quickly found my unzipped pockets filled up like a couple of sandbags with crushed ice. I got crushed ice in some other places too. It’s, like, completely impossible to be warm and comfortable when you’re coated with melting snow. The cottage hot tub becomes essential post-run therapy. Without it I would still be shivering.
So all you people who are trying to popularize the sport of snowshoe running, don’t look to me. It is good exercise. It is an easy and fun way to get out into the winter backcountry. But skiing is better.
I went telemark skiing at Beaver Valley on Sunday morning. It was my first day on the hill this season, thanks to all the running and life getting in the way. That spoiled me for the day, and also caused my late start on the trail and the short distance of my run. I had to quit early and call Tory to come pick me up (thank you!) because entering the Bayview Escarpment Provincial Nature Reserve as planned would have meant running (literally) out of daylight. Then I had to figure out how to keep warm for 45 minutes standing around in tights.
Survival Scenario
I decided to light a fire because I’ve been carrying around a little survival kit with matches and a lighter, and I’d always figured I could light a fire if I hurt myself and started to freeze to death. I burned up my entire box of matches. I had to fight with Ranger for every twig because Tory and I did not take life-and-death fire lighting into account when we encouraged Monsieur de-Ranger to play tug-of-war with sticks (so cute!). He dismantled the fire with gusto as fast as I could build it.
Oh what fun it is to laugh and sing…while losing all sensation in one’s fingers.
Notes to self: Bic lighter is impossible to use with cold hands if you don’t de-childproof it first; carry fire-starting materials; carry a knife; tie up dog before trying to collect firewood; do not plan to rely on fire for warmth—stick to jumping jacks.
Spring can’t come soon enough.
