Retired Mountain Lady

 I read the forecast for tonight and tomorrow and I hope it's wrong.  If you add up all of the amounts, it's way too much snow for me.  Plus wind.  Stock up people.

I've been hoping for this kind of winter.  

Probably going to get this one...  (See our snowshoe trail in the photo)  Too much snow to walk in.   January 2007. 

Willie report:

We had our first puppy training session with trainier, Nicole at North Idaho Animal Hospital.   Both Willie and I learned a lot.  We are working on his main issue at the moment which is that he is highly excitable whenever he meets someone new.  That means there's a lot of jumping up.  He does respond really well to his name and to the word "yes".  We are making progress.  

Jon and I appointments today to get our flu shots and then we will be fully vaccinated against everything.  We have several other appointments and I'm hoping we're finished and home before a lot of snow accumulates on the roads.

There is a positive if the snow amounts are huge and that is that we can break out our snowshoes.  Neither of us has had our shoes on for two years and it's really good exercise and a nice, quiet way to enjoy the woods.  Also, great for taking photos.  

I ordered our snowshoes in 2003.  Retired Mountain Man told me I was nuts.  I had never had a snowshoe on, but it seemed like it might be a fun way to get outside in the winter.  As it turns out, we used them constantly, along with our neighbors, Neil and Ann.  We even snowshoed our way into Ross Creek Cedars (2010?) one winter.  We had to start at the gate and I can tell you that it's a long way from the gate to the cedars.  

The following summer we drove into the cedars and as we drove along I couldn't believe that I actually hiked that far on the shoes.  Six and a half miles round trip on Jon's GPS.

Jon had packed in some plastic garbage bags so we could sit on the bench to eat our lunch.   After all that hiking it was a nice break to be able to sit down for a few minutes.  

We also hiked our way up to Greens Falls in January. 

It was a hike where we used both shoes and yak-tracs since the snow levels varied.  

Those were some of our bigger trips on shoes, which also included the ones that Jon made for the Wolverine Project.  That was some really difficult hiking on shoes, bushwhacking their way and packing a lot of extra weight in his pack, a half of a beaver for bait.  I did not go on those trips.  Too much for me. Plus, they got up REALLY early in the morning to drive to the hiking location.  Ugh!

The best part of the snowshoes was just having them for a daily hike around our place and a few other spots that were close enough to hike to.  When the snow is deep, we can still get outside and walk more than our driveway.

Happy Friday!

P.S.  I will not be hiking into Ross Creek Cedars