"I wish it had nuts"

... seemed to be the saying of the day. My wonderful friend Melissa and I ventured out on a snowshoeing expedition today. She had some rum and raisin fudge with her and must have shared her wish that it had nuts in it at least 5 times. "Really Melissa? Do you wish it had nuts in it? I think I knew that!" Personally I don't think you can call what she was eating fudge, and I refused to try it! I have had the ice-cream and it is what you call a waste of sweetness.
So our adventure was quite the adventure even though we had our maps and our layers ... and yes there was (supposedly) a well marked trail. We did the Hogarth Lake Loop at the base of Burstall Pass.
First off we decided to save on rentals as I remembered there being some old school snowshoes in my mom's garage "and those will work just as well right?". So off we go to pick them up. They seem to be in good shape ... my mom laughed at the thought of us using them ... so what we didn't care. Melissa and I have been on many adventures together and we always come back alive and with wonderful tales. I learned today that apparently Melissa's parents get nervous when they know the two of us are heading out together!
needless to say after a beautiful drive deep into K-Country we arrived at the trailhead ... and there were a lot of cars (being family day) and a lot of people with really fancy snowshoes. We both just started to laugh. So we might have waited till all the people around us left ...but away we went.
We soon realized that our hips were going to be quite sore after the 4.5 (which must have ended up being more like 6)Km loop we had planned ... and they are. They are really not the most natural things to walk on. AND of course I had to go off the trail into the deep powder every chance I got which was of course a lot of work (I was not so eager at the end!). Being that I am who I am I took the first fall trying to stand on one snowshoe so that YOU could see how old-school our shoes were in the picture ... but it was not the last fall and I was not the only one!
The first point at which we realized we were not on the right trail is when we had to crawl up a step incline with the shoes dragging behind. LAUGHING SO HARD ... we soon realized that this trail was for backcountry skiers ... perhaps the backcountry skiers should have been our first clue. But NO we were going to keep going to the top. And in our defense the trail did not look that deep ... at ALL ...so we decided to take off the shoes and walk up carrying them. Melissa lost her leg the first step and said it was hanging in some kind of hole! (what a wonderful day when you can laugh as hard as I am just recalling it!)oh dear I laughed and laughed and laughed and we turned around and slid down on our bottoms.
The second clue we had was when two woman that had initially passed us from behind appeared directly in front of us! We overheard them ... and apparently our snowshoes were the talk of the trail!
There were many a time where we had to help each other out of deep snow banks which are surprisingly powerful ... I know I thought they looked all innocent too!
I laughed the hardest when Melissa kneeled down to get the mountain in her picture and hit her legs on the wood edge ... she then proceeded to fall forward to stop the pain. I promise I tried to come help her but I could not stop laughing and needed a picture!
Ahhhhh... what beauty we have around us ... I continue to feel so blessed by the world that I live in! I always come back feeling rejuvenated and excited for my next adventure.
Hey we also saw kite-skiers on the lake, ice-fishing huts, and dog-sledders!
What a beautiful day! Oh and we ended it in Canmore at a Tea and Curry House (dunno ... never heard of that combination before in my life) ... the Curry was so HOT but I finished it (hence the red face in the above picture ... I love my new hat!)
Now I just need to fight sleeping for a couple hours so I do not find myself wide-eyed and bushy-tailed at 4 in the AM ... I am soooo tired!