2.2 Mile Snowshoe Hike/Run at Five Rivers EEC
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Turned out we had too much snow for me to run comfortably through it - so I pulled the snowshoes out of the closet and today's short run turned into my first snowshoe trek of the season (if 2.2 miles can be considered a "trek".)
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I ended up circling the Beaver Pond and then followed the trails along the Vloman Kill. Ran a bit (primarily downhills) but mostly I hiked. Pretty tough going in spots - the snow was wet and heavy and I'm definitely out of shape. My knee was pretty sore by the time I was done and my legs were definitely out of juice.
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Not much wildlife out and about today... the ponds were mostly frozen and I suspect most of the birds stayed under cover. I did see a couple of deer down by the creek, but the snowshoes make so much noise that they headed off into the woods before I had any hope of getting close enough to get a decent photo.
On the positive side - over the past few years the first couple of times I've gotten out on my snowshoes at the start of the season I've always been a bit surprised at how tough it is... don't know whether I've finally lowered my expectations to realistic levels or if it was just that I walked most of the time today, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Of course... I have a long way to go before I'll be ready to run some of the races I hope to do this winter (and if my knee doesn't stabilize as much as I want it to, I may be walking most of them anyway.)
JMH
