Yay Snow!!

Snow, finally.  It has been a long and ugly winter.  Nice and cold, not too bad as winters go, but relatively snow-free until the 28th of February/first of March, then it melted and now snow again on the 12th.  Mostly sunny skies and a bleak, coffee brown landscape.  I'll call it the come and go snow season.
There they stood in the box in my room.  Snowshoes.  Patiently waiting to be exercised again.  Just waiting.  Once in awhile I thought I could hear them scratching the sides of their long, dark cardboard tomb.  But that was just my imagination.
And then on that Thursday, the 1st of March, I hauled them out of storage, stepped outside into the bright sunshine and strapped them on before the snow could melt.  I didn't want to miss this one!
They say that you can burn 500 calories in an hour while snowshoeing.  You can burn 200 calories just trying to get them on!  It took a few times of rearranging my feet and the shoes before I finally remembered which way they were supposed to go.  Next time, I'll take pictures and create my own directions of "How To Put On Snowshoes". You know, "TGIF", as in toes-go-in-front.
I was almost feeling guilty that I wasn't up on the mountain, really getting my workout.  On the other hand, I have two acres of my own to plow around and I live two miles from the state park AND I saved gas by NOT driving 40+ miles to go 'hike'.  I really did walk around the property and as soon as I finished that, I didn't have any more trip guilt.  Then I took off up the snowy road we live on and walked about a half a mile--there and back--and was thoroughly guilt free.  You don't have to drive miles and miles to go have fun or get that workout, you can do it right in your own front yard!  And with all that snow and the beautiful day, it was just as wonderful as going out into the wilderness, except the coffee is a lot closer.  I am sure I earned that 500 calorie donut by the time I clomped back up on the deck.
Cheers!