Snowshoeing is cool

Kasia and I decided to go snowshoeing this afternoon near Snoqualmie Pass. I haven't snowshoed in 8 or 9 years, and Kasia has never tried it before, but we thought it would be fun. We were right.

I still have my old Tubbs Eclipse snowshoes (a model they no longer produce) from years ago. We bought Kasia a pair of basic snowshoes last night. After about an hour of futzing around with clothing and equipment, we were ready to hit the trail.

Kasia's first attempt at snowshoeing. Keechelus Lake is in the background.

Slow, steady progress.

Since Kasia had never done this before (and since it had been many years for me) we decided to do the simplest, easiest trail we could find: The Iron Horse Trail near Hyak. I think we chose well -- the trail was flat, well-groomed, and hard packed. In fact, it was so hard packed that snowshoes may have been unnecessary, but it was good practice.

Definitely slow, maybe not-so-steady.

Kasia on the groomed cross-country trail near our turn-around point.

I didn't bring the GPS, but according to Google Maps we probably walked about 3.5 miles or so. Not too bad for a very first outing. We're hooked, and we can't wait to do this again next weekend. We hope to do something a little more "serious", maybe nearby Lower Gold Creek.