Snow Shoeing in Eastern Stave

As this was my first time on snow shoes I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was it going to be difficult to walk? Was it going to be overly strenuous and tiring? How many times was I going to fall over? All good questions and for a person like me who likes to be in control and organized it left me a bit out of my comfort zone. But this was a good low key opportunity to try a new adventure. So I left with two of my boys Geoff, and Ethan and out we went.
On arriving in the Stave region I was wondering where the snow had gone. A month earlier the snow was much lower and we were in it at the start of the forest road, but today it was no where to be found. We traveled in and upward and fairly soon we came upon the snow and had to put on the chains to get some distance. Soon that too was not enough so we stopped there and got out to try the new snow shoes. Getting them on was quite easy and quick, these modern shoes are well made and easy to work. Off we went up the road, at first there were some ruts from a quad but soon we were past those and into virgin snow. We continued for a while climbing in elevation and having fun trying out different things one could do. As usual I was holding back the boys with their high energy output, but we all got as far as we wanted this first time out. The way back was just as adventuresome as we had to learn the downhill aspect of walking in the shoes.
Though the walk wasn’t that long we did have fun out there, but this left us with some time to explore a newly opened lower region. So we drove through an area that offered a few views of Stave Lake and the main 4x4 mud pit area on the far side. We did turn back a bit early on one road as it looked like a mud bath and as we didn’t have a winch we thought it prudent to avoid pushing our luck too far.
On the way back up to the main road we stopped at a viewpoint where I got a number of mountain shots, the boys found a number of skeet’s – there were many in good shape that the shooters had missed! Then it was off to home. I felt it was a good trip not only with learning some new skills but also an opportunity to explore a new area and capture some interesting scenes.