Snowshoeing!

After our gut-bomb lunch at Deschutes, we headed up to Mt. Bachelor to do a short snowshoeing hike. We stopped at Swampy Lakes and got all our gear on. It was probably about 2pm when we started. The Snowshoe loop was a little under 4 miles.
It took us 2 hours to do the loop and I burned 900 calories!!!! Basically, I burned off lunch! Yay! I felt really good about that number. Unfortunately, around mile 3, my left knee started to really hurt. :( I am hoping I didn't do any lasting harm to it. The trail was fairly level and flat, with only a few big hills and a few small, rolling hills.

I really like snowshoeing a lot. It's a fairly easy winter sport to do and it's almost impossible to really hurt yourself (like you would skiing). And it's way cheaper than skiing! This was the first time I snowshoed without a guide and it went great. I'm really happy we tried it on our own and I think my next purchase will be my own pair of snowshoes. The trail was clearly marked and if you stayed on the trail, there was no way to get lost or turned around.

We saw a lot of animal tracks too. The snow was peaceful and the weather was perfect. In fact, the weather was wonderful ALL weekend long! We really lucked out. I will say, though, that it wasn't much of a vacation! We did NOT rest or relax at all. Oh well, we had fun!

After snowshoeing, we checked into Eagle Crest where our friends have a timeshare and us girls went to the nearest grocery store to get food for the weekend. We decided on EASY, which translated to probably not the healthiest...For dinner Friday night we made 2 frozen pizzas for the four of us. Newman's Own and California Kitchen I think. They were okay. We stayed up pretty late playing Yahtzee and having some drinks. Fun!

Snowshoeing!

One of my favorite winter activities is snowshoeing. I'm fairly new to the sport, and haven't attempted to do it on my own yet. I hope to remedy that in a few weeks when I go on vacation with some friends. We plan on renting some snowshoes and poles from REI for the weekend and exploring Mt. Bachelor.

Some people might be intimidated by the concept, but really, after a 5 minute lesson on how to put the shoes on, you'll be fine. I suggest a guided tour at first, unless you have training in outdoor navigation. When everything is white, it's very easy to get turned around.

Besides the fact that snowshoeing is a lot of fun, it's a GREAT workout! If you don't like running, but walking or hiking is your thing, snowshoeing will be a snap. It's essentially just walking on top of snow.

Some of the benefits include:
*You burn 45% more calories snowshoeing than if you were just walking or hiking.
*Hip flexors and quadriceps can get more of a workout than just walking due to the lifting motion of each step. (Which is great news for runners and bikers!)
*It's a low-impact aerobic exercise.
*It's much easier to learn than skiing! :)

Depending on what part of the country you live in, winters can be pretty brutal. If you're a runner and it's snowing (like in Philly where my brother lives!), you can't go for a run outside. Snowshoeing is a great cross-training activity.