Suck It Up, Buttercup

Was all set and ready to go this morning when Sam started coughing and hacking at 5:45. Sadly, despite some back rubs, some water and the early hour, there was no getting her back to sleep, so we headed downstairs to cuddle on the couch instead. Sigh. So much for the early morning run before Ryan headed to Lost Valley for the Baxter Outdoors Winter Duathlon. Thankfully after a bit of resting on the couch and some breakfast, Sam seemed to bounce back and we were able to get outside mid-morning for a bit of sledding and a lot of tromping around and on the huge snow piles in the sledding area. The rest of the morning was spent coloring and writing letters to the grandparents and watching Magic School Bus.

Despite the beautiful weather and the fact that Sam seemed to be OK, I was feeling in a bit of a funk by the time Ryan got home around 1:30. He had had a lot of fun at the race, so was in no mood for me to be dreary. He pretty much said, "suck it up and go!" Ever the understanding hubby ;)

I drove over to the hiker parking lot and donned my snowshoes. I was surprised that mine was the only car in the lot but figured I'd see others out on the trail. Amazingly, I didn't end up running into anyone out there. Odd, because it really was pretty nice out and the trails were in good shape despite the fact that the temps were hovering right around 32 degrees. I ran along the Heath and then down to the river, meandering on the well packed trails up to the field. From there, as I headed out onto the Ravine Trail, the traffic thinned considerably, with deer prints (and deer postholes!) far outnumbering the minimal snowshoe tracks.

There were tracks that stopped mid-bridge, so mine were the only ones along the side hill and up along the ridge out to the Blueberry Trail. There, I followed old snow-covered snowmobile tracks out to the old road, at which point, a fairly well packed snowshoe trail appeared heading out in the direction of Head of Tides. Still, it was pretty slow going. I contemplated turning around at Cathance Road but really wanted to say I had snowshoed to Head of Tides :) so I crossed the street and ran down to the parking area. Snowshoe run to Head of Tides accomplished! Now I just had to get back. HA! ;)

Despite the fact that I was out there for 1:30, I only managed to run 6.75 miles, so obviously, trail conditions were not ideal but it was a fun trip. And of course, once I was out in the woods, I was thankful that Ryan had pushed me out the door :)

Beautiful day for a snowshoe out to Head of Tides.

Bright sunlight, soft snow.