A Night Snowshoeing Adventure

First Night snowshoe

I did my first snowshoe of the season on Sunday evening.  The snowshoe trips actually started in December, but this is the first chance for me to go out on one.  As it was dark and rainy I really didn't expect anyone to show up at the parking lot where we meet at before trips.  Boy, was I ever wrong!  There were 6 people waiting, and eight of us snowshoed all together.

All ready to go

This was the First 'Full Moon' snowshoe trip that the club has hosted.  Even though there was no moon, it was a great trip!  ( I think that it rose soon after we finished the snowshoe) We snowshoed at Wilkins Regional Park near Miworth.  Headlamps were a must.  I had a dim headlamp and I changed the batteries as soon as I came home.  I think that it's a good thing to check ahead of the trip.  But I had no problems seeing the trail as the light from the other headlamps lit up the trail brightly.

No moon meant that it was pretty dark

Nowell S., who led the trip, wrote up an excellent article for the Rambler's website and I'd thought that I'd post it here (with permission)

Full Moon Snowshoe Trip – Wilkins Park Jan 8, 2012 

By: Nowell S.

Our expectation for this trip was for a cold, dry, crisp evening with clear skies and a full moon.

As it turned out, we had a warmish, wettish, flaccid evening with a cloudy sky, rain and no moon – at least not one that we could see.

This photo taken by Nowell S.

 Still, we had a lot of fun tripping along through the park in the dark with the large cottonwoods silhouetted against the sky, and the Nechako flowing silently and sinuously through banks of snow and ice.

Cougar print

As we left the river and back to the vehicles we came across large fresh cougar prints – which was a fine finale to a very enjoyable winter’s night in Wilkins Park.

I wore my gortex jacket as it was raining a lot

Matt checks out the snow conditions

Dry shelter with a stove if needed

Here's to the next week snowshoe to the Cliff, which I will be leading.  I've posted information about the upcoming snowshoe, and trip reports from the two snowshoe trips on January 8th at www.caledoniaramblers.ca