Well, we did it! We snowshoed up to Snowflake Lodge last night. Let's see, we had Sherry, Sandy, Jane, Jim (we FINALLY got to meet him!), Renee, Lauren, Andrea, Melanie, Monica, Scott, Helen, Jerrold and Kim (Helen, Jerrold and Kim must have been sipping down some wine because they didn't see us taking up 1/3 of Snowflake lodge for this picture.) and me. Also pictured is our teacher/guide (the young lady in the front). Before the snowshoeing , we met at the base lodge for peppermint vodka shots (thank you Lauren!) and other cocktails (not sure drinking was a magnificent idea before heading out on a 600+ foot climb when it's 28 degrees outside and the wind is blowing like it's training for a hurricane, but fun!) and to wish Patty Proctor a Happy Birthday!
I'm not sure if any of us got pictures of the gorgeous sunset that we saw while hiking up the mountain. It was a bit chilly to take the time to take out your phone and snap a picture. Hopefully, it's etched in all of our memories.
So, Sherry and I won the heavy breather awards for last night (although, I didn't ask everyone the personal question of what their average heart rate was), but we were at 159 bpm and 166 bpm for the hike up! I won in the number of stops made to catch my breath on the way up.
Once we reached the top of the mountain, we got nice little snack boxes (crackers, cheese, nuts, dried fruit, a chocolate) and a generous poured glass of wine. Some of us enjoyed our snacks inside, some outside.
Our only blunder was that we were eager to get down the mountain (especially those who enjoyed their cocktails outside) and we put our snowshoes on and waited, but for just a little bit (again, the wind was blowing hurricane force winds and the water in my water bottle (that I was holding) froze at the top of the water bottle!), and we left a few of our group behind. They made it down, together, but we'll have to figure out something for our next hike to make sure we stay all together. Our motto is "No Tessie Left Behind" and we had a burp in the plan last night.
The next official snowshoe hike to Snowflake lodge is February 18th and the one after that is March 18th. Who is in?
