Snowshoeing!

I live in Vermont, where winter just isn't any fun unless we have snow. Lucky us - Sunday and Monday we had our first big snowstorm of the year, and we ended up with about 10 inches of fresh powder.

Today was the perfect winter day: sunny, cold, and snow! It was 7 degrees when I woke up, but by the time I met my friend Fern for snowshoeing, we had a heat wave: 25 degrees!

According to the calorie burn estimator at http://www.calorieking.com/, I burned 460 calories during my one-hour romp in the snow. That's about 100 more calories than I would burn running for the same amount of time, because snowshoeing is hard work! Of course, we walked primarily on snowmobile trails, so only had to "break trail" as we call it, for a short period of time. Nothing in Vermont is flat, so we went up and down hills the entire way.

I'm looking forward to our running club's snowshoe race later this month. It's really difficult to actually run wearing snowshoes, but going as fast as I can through the mountains in Woodford, Vermont, is a great way to spend the morning. Don't let this picture fool you; on most of my snowshoe jaunts I'm following a trail that's only wide enough for one person, with trees all around. If you live where there's snow, grab a pair of snowshoes and start walking!