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Living in the southwest corner of a northeastern state has its advantages. For instance, when it’s 0ºF in Burlington, it’s a balmy 5ºF in my neck of the woods. When they get pounded with an inch of slush in Philly, we’re buried in a foot of snow. Some may not see this as an advantage, but I do. I like snow. And this year so far has been a doozy in terms of storm activity. But as long as it’s gone by Memorial Day, it can snow every day for all I care.
Snowshoeing is an activity I hadn’t tried until a few years ago, but I was
immediately hooked. It opened up pristine areas of untouched powder that
before I could only admire from afar. Now I can plunge right in and
actually enjoy the stuff that covers the ground around here for about a
third of the year— all for free! Bringing my dog along makes the hike that much
more enjoyable.
You can tell when your dog is truly having fun. When he’s out there bounding
through drifts and shoving his head deep into powdery whiteness, at that
moment, life couldn’t be better. And while snowshoeing in more than a foot
of snow may be a workout for me, it’s five times as strenuous for Logan, my Lab mix. Not
because he has trouble navigating the deep stuff, but because he’s
everywhere else but actually on the trail. I figure for every mile I travel,
he must cover at least two, plowing around the trees, crashing beneath
overloaded pine boughs, and leaping over downed branches and stumps. I get
tired just watching him, that is when I can actually see him. But clearly,
for Logan, this is what snow is for.
We’re expecting more snow here in the next day or so, and soon after, the
mercury will plunge once again to the single digits. There’ll be a fresh
coating to erase our tracks from the last hike, and come the weekend, I’ll
log another few miles—Logan, another ten.