Emily's 1st Snowshoe Hike

for some back story: I smashed the tar out of my right ring finger on Dec 30th while stacking firewood for my mom. After watching it continue to swell for an hour, I decided to go to the emergency room. Sure enough, I broke 2 pieces off of the tip. A couple days later I got into the ortho doc and they decided the 2 bits were in good enough position so that all I got for treatment is a fingertip plastic guard to keep from banging the end of my finger. So, I've been treating it gently for the last week but I haven't been out hiking since Dec 9th. I felt the need to get out. Also, Randy has been suffering thru a very painful heel problem. After seeing a podiatrist several time, the inflammation has gone but he still has some heel pain. He hasn't been hiking in months and has been missing being out too.

So, Randy thouht snowshoeing would be less stressful on his heel than regular hiking. I just want to get out, even tho I expected some trouble gripping hiking poles and, we want to get our niece, Emily, out for a winter hike. We've been nagging my brother to get Em some good boots and a pair of snowshoes. We finally won out and Saturday AM, Sheri took Emily to get some boots. We picked her up and went to Havelick's, a local snowshoe outfitter and got her a pair of snowshoes. Since it was Em's 1s snowshoe and both Randy and I were unsure of our physical capabilities, we decided to go to our local Mud Lake.

We stopped at our house to pick up our packs and to try Emily's snowshoes on in the house. We were a little dissapointed that the binding going over her instep, when let out to the max, only just allowed room for her boots. Since it did work, we packed everything up and went to the trailhead. We got there about 12:30pm and got our gear on quickly and set off up the mountain. While the hike isn't far, it's all uphill to Mud Lake. Fortunately, local snow machine riders had been thru and we were able to follow the snow machines packed trail all the way to the lake. We stopped several times to rest and I was down to long sleeve shirt and fleece vest in the 1st 15 minutes. We got to the south east end of the lake and the snow machines contintued in that direction. We wanted to get to the northern end so for the lenght of the lake, had to break new trail. Since this part was downhill, it was kind of fun. We took a break at the lake, eating some late lunch and I broke out my backpacking stove and made tea. It only took about 45 min to an hour to get back to the jeep we left at the trailhead. Always easier going downhill than up.

We stopped at the house to trasfer Em's gear to the car to take her home. Emily's heel straps on the snowshoes kept twisting right or left and caused her feet to skew sideways in the snowshoe and we were not happy with the instep strap so on the way back to Emily's, a stop was made at Havelick's. They were sorry to hear about the snow shoe problems and swapped out the pair we bought earlier for a new pair. These were tried on in the store and pronounced suitable. Emily said she had fun and it was not only her 1st snow shoe but her 1st winter hike! Yeah! Another hiking convert.

I had some discomfort with my hand. I had to hold the pole awkwardly to accomodate my broken finger and that tired my hand out by the end of the hike. Randy had some discomfort by the end of the hike, going downhill put more pressure on his heel than the uphill portion. Also, a month between hikes is too long. All the resting going up the mountain was from not being in hiking condition. It doesn't take long to get out of shape, even if I am working out on the elipse machine and lifting weights. Got to stay on the trail!