Snow Shoes

This past weekend we had an unexpected opportunity to try out snowshoes! We were tooling around on a sunny Sunday afternoon without much of a destination in mind when Owen and I decided to show Troy the Maplewood Nature Center. When we got there the lady working asked if we were there for the snowshoe rental. Snowshoes? Really? Let's go home, get our gear on, and zoom right back for a walk around the lake!

To be honest, the path was so well worn that plain ol' boots would have been fine, but we there for the new experience after all, so we trudged our way around the 7/8 mile path and convinced ourselves that this was what people do for fun in Saint Paul on a 30 degree Sunday afternoon.

Little Chief made it the whole way around, but about halfway through we began to hear the rumblings of " I can't go anymore." So we did a few races, looked for more animal tracks and did what we could to make it the other half way round. It worked and we arrived in one piece : )

While I knew the lake was frozen, and only a few feet deep, I still couldn't bring myself to walk on it. I am not that Minneostan. Owen kept trying to convince me that "it's really OK, Mom, " but it just wasn't for me. I stuck to the path and took the pictures.

All in all it was a great time. I would totally be up for doing this again. Another lake, a little less well defined path...yeah, I would do it. I'm at least that Minnesotan.