- Joined
- Aug 12, 2007
- Messages
- 701
First i want to start by saying that i never really got why anyone would want to go snowshoeing... it seemed rather pointless and as a kid i went, and had fun, but the fun was more building forts once we got to where we where going. then a few weeks ago my wife asked if i wanted to do anything on my days offf and i remembered my father had a set of snow shoes. so out we went.
after being out for only a few minutes, i have to say, i finally understand what its all about!!!
Just the peaceful quite, there's no speed, there is no roar of the engine, just quite. Now i have to say that I'm not a big fan of winter, well more the cold. Since i work outside all day up to -40 the last thing i want to do on my days off is going outside. but now after the little fun i had snowshoeing I really got into it!!!
With that said the Snowshoes my father lent me where not the greatest, they where to weak for me (im a bigger guy) and the crampons where made of plastic, which was a nightmare on hills.
So this weekend i went out and bought these babies
And i must say that they are Amazing!!! There extremely light and durable! and they grip the snow like no ones business. as for uphill, you can pivot your foot to use the cleats. to test them i took them up a hill of about 60 degrees and with little effort beat the hill. it was a great buy and i am extremely excited about going out again. Finally i have found something active to do in winter that suits me.
Well with that out of the way, i will tell about how the rest of my outing went. My plan was to go out and snowshoe for 2 hours stop and make a fire for lunch then play with some knifes and then go down to the river and follow that home.the path in I took crossed a river (the same place me and the wife went last time.) which was not a problem the first crossing, all forzen and rock hard.. and everything went great. i hiked for about 2 hours and saw a lot of great animal tracks From rabbit, to deer, moose coyote, fox mouse mink and muskrat!
Here is a particularly busy spot, alot of rabbit tracks and scat. would be a great place to set some snares, but i was on a mission so i moved along.
After a while i started looking for a good place to make camp. the snow was very deep so finding a spot took a while. but eventually i found the spot
Here is a picture of my camp
Used my new Fiskar camp axe to cut my wood
And used some inner bark from a old dead black popular tree to start the fire. took some time but got it going. (i also used the dry outer bark to make a nice dry seat.)
Some fire shots
With the fire made and some time to kill i decided to do a proper test of my ML woods and bush. So i did a bit of batoning, i cut down a few saplings to dry my shirt using the technique that Kevin had shown about cutting a tree under pressure (bend the sapling and push down with the knife.)
so with the chopping/ batoning out of the way (a success) i decided to carve a spoon/spatula for the meal making. again the knife did a good job. I am very proud of the knife it works wood quite well. A great purchase.
here it is my spoon
With the spoon done i started lunch.
cooking
Finished product. Moose meat, and veggie stew with roasted garlic on the side.
while i was cooking this little guy started tapping at the trees around me, but never stay still long enough for me to get a better pic but he is here see if yo can find him, great natural camo!
With lunch done i decided it was time to walk out. so i broke camp and made for the river. (here is where it gets interesting) i took 2 steps onto the river and whoosh my foot is a foot in water! well this is no good because to go back would mean taking longer than i intended so i decided to stay next to the river till i could fine a safe place to cross. at first the going was pretty easy, then it started to get thicker and thicker till i was going through this
made for quite a workout. eventually i found a good place to cross and used a stick to test the ice ahead of me and made it by no problem. took a lot longer to make it back to the car but with a bit of muscle power i made it to the road. all together it was a great day. had a lot of fun and was nice and soar when i made it home.
More pictures below. thanks for reading.
after being out for only a few minutes, i have to say, i finally understand what its all about!!!
Just the peaceful quite, there's no speed, there is no roar of the engine, just quite. Now i have to say that I'm not a big fan of winter, well more the cold. Since i work outside all day up to -40 the last thing i want to do on my days off is going outside. but now after the little fun i had snowshoeing I really got into it!!!
With that said the Snowshoes my father lent me where not the greatest, they where to weak for me (im a bigger guy) and the crampons where made of plastic, which was a nightmare on hills.
So this weekend i went out and bought these babies
And i must say that they are Amazing!!! There extremely light and durable! and they grip the snow like no ones business. as for uphill, you can pivot your foot to use the cleats. to test them i took them up a hill of about 60 degrees and with little effort beat the hill. it was a great buy and i am extremely excited about going out again. Finally i have found something active to do in winter that suits me.
Well with that out of the way, i will tell about how the rest of my outing went. My plan was to go out and snowshoe for 2 hours stop and make a fire for lunch then play with some knifes and then go down to the river and follow that home.the path in I took crossed a river (the same place me and the wife went last time.) which was not a problem the first crossing, all forzen and rock hard.. and everything went great. i hiked for about 2 hours and saw a lot of great animal tracks From rabbit, to deer, moose coyote, fox mouse mink and muskrat!
Here is a particularly busy spot, alot of rabbit tracks and scat. would be a great place to set some snares, but i was on a mission so i moved along.
After a while i started looking for a good place to make camp. the snow was very deep so finding a spot took a while. but eventually i found the spot
Here is a picture of my camp
Used my new Fiskar camp axe to cut my wood
And used some inner bark from a old dead black popular tree to start the fire. took some time but got it going. (i also used the dry outer bark to make a nice dry seat.)
Some fire shots
With the fire made and some time to kill i decided to do a proper test of my ML woods and bush. So i did a bit of batoning, i cut down a few saplings to dry my shirt using the technique that Kevin had shown about cutting a tree under pressure (bend the sapling and push down with the knife.)
so with the chopping/ batoning out of the way (a success) i decided to carve a spoon/spatula for the meal making. again the knife did a good job. I am very proud of the knife it works wood quite well. A great purchase.
here it is my spoon
With the spoon done i started lunch.
cooking
Finished product. Moose meat, and veggie stew with roasted garlic on the side.
while i was cooking this little guy started tapping at the trees around me, but never stay still long enough for me to get a better pic but he is here see if yo can find him, great natural camo!
With lunch done i decided it was time to walk out. so i broke camp and made for the river. (here is where it gets interesting) i took 2 steps onto the river and whoosh my foot is a foot in water! well this is no good because to go back would mean taking longer than i intended so i decided to stay next to the river till i could fine a safe place to cross. at first the going was pretty easy, then it started to get thicker and thicker till i was going through this
made for quite a workout. eventually i found a good place to cross and used a stick to test the ice ahead of me and made it by no problem. took a lot longer to make it back to the car but with a bit of muscle power i made it to the road. all together it was a great day. had a lot of fun and was nice and soar when i made it home.
More pictures below. thanks for reading.
looks delicious...