Went out for some snowshoeing Sunday pre-Superbowl. Me and the two J's decided to break the pre-game tension by hitting the Gats. We choose Wolf Loop, us and about 400 other people.
After a short wait we snagged some parking and set out to climb the big hill. You can do Wolf Loop in two directions (of course), one way is a steep climb followed by a long gradual downhill. The other way is a long gradual climb followed by a steep descent. We chose the former. It was an excellent day for snowshoeing, cold enough to keep you moving but not freezing. the frost was still on the trees in mid afternoon making for some very nice views from the ridge. I have no pics to share because my camera is acting up again. I am going to have to break down and put it in for repairs. We ended up taking the shortcut down the main cross country ski trail because we took a longtime climbing the hill and were concerned about getting to Jones' for the festivities. We got there early in the end.
After a short wait we snagged some parking and set out to climb the big hill. You can do Wolf Loop in two directions (of course), one way is a steep climb followed by a long gradual downhill. The other way is a long gradual climb followed by a steep descent. We chose the former. It was an excellent day for snowshoeing, cold enough to keep you moving but not freezing. the frost was still on the trees in mid afternoon making for some very nice views from the ridge. I have no pics to share because my camera is acting up again. I am going to have to break down and put it in for repairs. We ended up taking the shortcut down the main cross country ski trail because we took a longtime climbing the hill and were concerned about getting to Jones' for the festivities. We got there early in the end.
So day two of my hypo-allergenic diet is over. So is the idea of following Canada's food guide. That thing is a cruel joke and a half. I'm not a small guy and fairly active and I can't recall the last time someone accused me of not having a healthy appetite but there is no way I can eat that much food and not explode. In two days I have not yet been able to eat my full daily amount. It seems pretty obvious after two days that Canada's food guide is a devious plan to make people eat buckets of grain until they are morbidly obese. The question is why?
I am going to stick with the hypo-allergenic diet though. I'm just going to reduce the grains portions since they are the blandest part. Vegetables without added flavours are fine but boiled grains without sauce make me wonder why ancient people gave up the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in exchange for agriculture. So far the only answer I can come up with is beer.
3 comments:
I didn't put on the snowshoes but I ended January and started February on a walking note .... On Saturday I did 10 kms on the rails to trails behind my house geocaching with little success - these ones were small "micros" - bascically film cannister size - and I only found 1 of the 7 I went looking for - actually found 3 but 2 were frozen in their hiding spot... Feeling way too energetic Sunday morning I was determined to be the first to find a new geocache on the Bluff Hiking Trail not far from my house .....
I headed out on Superbowl Sunday morning from the Bluff Parking Lot in the 4 to 6 inces of fresh powdery snow with the intention of trying to make this one my first "FirstToFind" (and only geocache find #28). After getting on Indian Hill Loop a little way (about 4km in), a woman on snowshoes and her dog blew past me and left me panting and wondering if she was going to get the FTF. At least she was breaking / marking the trail for me now..... Shortly after that three trial runners went by and I was thinking my chances of getting the FTF were dwindling.... I kept going to the first branch between Indian Hill and the Bluff Loop where a cross country ski track joined in from the lake. When I got to the fork by the Marsh Lakes I could see the x-country skier just ahead of me going in the direction of the cache and I knew my legs were at their limit for returning along the trail. At that point the GPS said I had gone almost 9 kms and I still had 3.2 kms to go so I had a coffee and a snack and decided to forego it until I could find a new way in..... On the return trek the 4th trail runner caught up to me and he was very disappointed when I told him he had not looped back like he thought he did and he was at least an hour behind the other 3 with still 6 or 7 kms to get back to the parking lot... he walked with me for a while but I think I was too slow for him and he started running again - 5 hours after leaving the parking lot I got back knowing the extra 7 kms would have made the return pretty tough - all in all the GPS said I went 18.6 kms in 4 hrs 22 mins moving time for an average of 4.2 km/hr with only 45 mins stopped time..... Guess I shouldn't have done the 10kms on the BLT Rails to Trails the day before ....... I saw a note on the website last night by another guy that went after the same geocache from another direction the other day only to turn back before getting there so its still available for a FTF.... maybe this weekend.. pics in the link at my name .... and oh yeah, I'm still on the SIEI diet .....
28.6 kms is a lot of walking for one weekend.
Good luck with the FTF next Saturday - sharpen your elbows :)
Parked the car at the end of White Sands Ct. and snowshoed the length of Hubley Big lake to the portage then across to Upper Five Bridge Lake and on into the Five Bridge Runs – Followed footprints until they turned back and then crossed over because the GPS was pointing to that side and found a path after a little scare when my right snowshoe broke through the ice at the edge of the run and went in almost to the knee – boots and gaiters worked well though and I barely felt a bit of water – When the GPS was reading 160m from the cache I realized I was on the wrong side of the run and had to bushwhack back across the stream on snowshoes then up the hill through the bush to the cache site. Flushed a partridge which hopefully scared him at least a little bit more than it got me. Lots of deer and rabbit sign in here. The GPS said it was 4.9 kms in 1.25 hours. Got the FTF for “View of Middle Five Bridge Lake for my first FTF! Took the sou'wester coin and the first aid kit becuase I left mine somewhere. Left a $2 casino coin - let me know if you win something with it - and some bright neon shoelaces.
Nice spot even if a little tough to get to. Hung around for a bit and had a bite to eat and coffee. I could hear lots of ATV activity on the trail at the other end of Middle Five Bridge Lake.
Headed back out and picked up Bonsai Beach – this one has to be easier at this time of year - and Paramedic Cache Station – of course I did these two in the wrong order and had to backtrack from Bonsai to get Paramedic - on the way out. Picked up the Portage Micro just before heading back down the lake. Passed two guys snowshoeing in as I was heading back down Hubley Big Lake – the only people I saw today. 5 hours (3 hours moving) and 13.3 kms total - including the backtrack and a quick detour to see what the “blue thing in the woods” across the Upper Five Bridge Lake was – and I was back at the car.
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