FLCC> Monday night snowshoe outing

[Glenn Swan]

	I could hardly believe it ! At 5:00 yesterday there was a virtual traffic 
jam in my driveway as a small army arrived for the weekly outing on 
snowshoes. In all, we had 18 people and 9 dogs !  Some of the ski trails 
were quickly packed down, almost wide enough to skate (more than wide 
enough to do classical with room on the sides for planting ski poles) but 
the group was not going to be content with a simple walk in the woods on 
flat trails, so we floated on down toward route 366 for a little "gorge 
diving".  There were more than a couple of incredulous gasps as the first 
people just walked off the edge of a small precipice and rode an avalanche 
down to the bottom of the gorge. A few minutes later everyone was down 
there and some thought it was a joke that Mike Ullberg started climbing the 
wall on the other side, but it quickly became clear that the route was 
going to be straight up the wall. With some pushing and pulling and lots of 
general shouted support (not to mention more than a little laughter) we got 
everybody up the impossibly steep wall (with snowshoes on) and then marched 
back up the hill toward home. It works kind of like a pace line, where the 
strongest migrate toward the front and break trail in the deep snow. As 
they tire, they drop to the rear and others move forward and set the pace. 
Some just sat in near the back and enjoyed relatively easy (and that's 
definitely a relative term) conditions. It's a great equalizer. By the time 
we got home I think everyone was more than pleasantly tired. There were a 
lot of dogs who slept pretty well last night too.

	Thanks to all who showed !  Hearing so many conversations and so much 
laughter outdoors really makes my day.

Until next week,

Glenn Swan