If Winter Won't Come To Me...

I love winter. I like the snow, the cold, those bright crisp days, all of it. That said, I live in Vancouver. Vancouver doesn't have winter, it has rain. And clouds. And grey, wet days. The rain here drives me a little crazy. When I wake up in the morning and hear that drizzle sound any sense I have of the day being a good one quickly smoulders out and I have no desire to leave my bed. When the first rains come in September or October, I get a sense of dread, knowing that grey and wet raincoats and almost getting my eyes poked out by umbrellas will be my life for the next 137 months or so it will seem. The dread is enough to make me want to run screaming to somewhere in the middle of the prairies.

Knowing all this, my special lady friend, in an attempt to either get me out of the house more or to keep me sane by forcing me to do winter activities, or more than likely a bit of both, gave me a pair of snowshoes for Christmas.

Yesterday was the first time I got to go up into the mountains and try them out. I'd been snowshoeing before, but it felt different having my own pair. It made me feel like, well, like the type of person that has his own snowshoes. The weather down here in the city was beautiful yesterday, so with some cold and snow thrown into the mix, it could only get better.

I headed up Mt. Seymour for my first expedition, bought my trail pass, enjoyed the beautiful views of Mt. Baker, strapped on my snow shoes and set out on the trails. It hadn't snowed in quite a while, so the snow, and there was lots of it, was all packed down. Which meant that most of the time I didn't really need snowshoes. But darn it, I was there to snowshoe so snowshoe I would. Besides, the trail was often steep and icy, so the crampons were helpful.

It was great to be up there, walking through the snow in the woods, listening to the birds, enjoying the feel of icy cold air on skin. It may have satisfied my desire for winter for a little while, and perhaps when it is raining down here, I'll at least be able to think that it is snowing up in the mountains so I could go snowshoeing in fresh snow, but in the end, I still miss living in winter. On a happy note, I heard on the radio today that there may be flurries on the way...