the Way of the Turtle

4 Mile Snowshoe at Black Creek Park
Sunday, December 20, 2009

My knee was feeling decent and the weather was pretty good, so this afternoon I headed over to Black Creek Park for either a run or a snowshoe. The trails were packed enough (and the snow was thin enough) that I could have easily run the whole time in my screw shoes, but I decided to go with the snowshoes just so I'd have another chance to get used to them again after 9 months. That may not have been the best decision - while the running was pretty easy (compared to my slog at Five Rivers about a week and a half ago) I ended up snapping a cleat somewhere along the trail. Fortunately it was an older one and I have spares...

As I was gearing up I got a very strong reminder that we've been lucky to have a warm start to the winter - the wind whipping across the parking lot was dang cold! I had to change the cleats and a binding on my snowshoes and my hands were killing me by the time I was done. Good thing running warms me up fairly quickly...

The first part of my run took me through the fields, woods, and swamps of the hardwood swamp trail. Spotted a few birds along the way (including a woodpecker) but not much else. Near the end of the trail the swamp hosts a heron rookery which I discovered last summer; I hiked down to the edge of the swamp to take a look at the nests high up in the trees, but of course the herons were nowhere in sight.

From there I took the newer trails though the woods back toward the parking lot. Again, spotted few birds (including a decent number of robins toward the end of the path) and also some deer way off in the bushes. While I passed a few folks walking their dogs on the trail out, no one else was on this one today. Toward the end I could hear the kids sledding and tubing down the hill, even though I couldn't see them through the trees. Leaving the woods even gave me my one chance for something resembling actual snowshoeing for a tenth of a mile or so, before I was back at the parking lot - the snow in the field hadn't been packed down.

JMH