First snowshoe of 2011

Sadie and I started up the RED CIRCLE to YELLOW. I was snowshoeing and had crashed up to the RED CIRCLE. We turned up the Y/G CROSSOVER and met a guy from North Haven who had looped up to WHITE and was headed back down. I was intent on making it all the way to the GREEN. About where the trail winds down to GREEN, Sadie disappeared.

I went back up to the turn where I thought she left and heard voices coming down the ORANGE from the east. So I yelled to them and asked if they'd seen a dog. They said they hadn't so I went back towards GREEN where I thought Sadie's tracks headed off to the west. There was a rise there so I thought maybe if she had gone over that she might not hear me calling her.

After crashing through the mountain laurel and falling once (not easy to maneuver with snowshoes), I finally called home because I was concerned that Sadie might show up without me. When Emily answered and I explained my situation, she said Sadie was already at the door. I have no idea how she got home that fast (or why).

But now I was on my own and enjoying the snowshoe crashing. I worked my way down the rocks, not very gracefully, and plodded over to the GREEN. From there I had ideas of doing the whole GREEN but when I headed towards the WHITE, I realized it was much longer than I thought. So I decided to go for the B/W CROSSOVER. I was a little disoriented when I hit the BLUE; I thought the B/W CROSSOVER went down the hill I was looking for and for some reason started heading down west on the BLUE.

I realized my mistake and went back up the rocks to where the white markers were for the crossover. On the way up the rocks, I fell once and ended up in the snow with no gloves. My hands were pretty cold and then I had to work my way down the BLUE to the RED TRIANGLE. On my way down, I got my showshoes tangled and fell again.

At some point here I realized my right middle finger was cut and bleeding. It was a very small cut but the blood was running steadily. I turned south on the RED TRIANGLE and when I got to the intersection with the GREEN, I called home. I asked which way was shortest to go out, either to Mt Carmel Ave or Tuttle or take GREEN all the way to Chestnut.

Emily said the RED TRIANGLE was shortest, so I decided to take it down to Mt Carmel Ave. I fell one more time and later stepped out of one snowshoe and decided to take them off and carry them. I had alternated my hands in my pockets to the point where they were almost back to normal.

Emily picked me up and I threw the showshoes in the trunk with my snowy sweatshirt. It was a great adventure. We'll see how I feel tomorrow!