Once again, we could not bear to take weekend off from Splorin’. We thought we would just spend the day at home getting caught up on housework, sleep, and just spending time together (not outdoors). But the call of the Splor’ was too strong. It had snowed 4 or 5 inches overnight so we decided this would be the perfect opportunity for the inaugural hike on our snowshoes. Mike got them and our trekking poles ready and we decided to stay extremely close to home — Putnam Park State Natural Area is a nice 3 mile hike (out and back) the goes through some lowlands by the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. It is only a 2.5 mile drive from our house. We have crossed this trail MANY times on our way walking to downtown Eau Claire from home, but it wasn’t until a month or so ago that we actually walked the trail — and it was amazing. Yet another one of those things that we never knew existed until we started slowing down and spending more time on our feet in our tennis shoes instead of on our butts in a car.
Both of us were a little apprehensive about our first foray into snowshoeing. Both of us had done it in the past, but that was a LONG time ago. On our way to the trail we actually drive right over it (there is a tunnel for the trail — foreshadowing) and saw a couple of people walking down the trail. Tammy suggested that maybe we should try hiking the trail without the snowshoes first. Mike didn’t want to, and although Tammy did her best to try to convince Mike to still snowshoe if he wanted, he too decided to walk too. So down the trail we started. The snow wasn’t too deep to walk, but it was a little slippery. And it was absolutely gorgeous in the fresh snowfall. The tunnel made an especially beautiful picture.
We have lived in Eau Claire for 22 years and NEVER knew this existed. We have driven over it hundreds of times and you do not know that the tunnel is even there. Just through the tunnel we came across an upturned tree’s root system that presented a very pretty sight covered in the fresh snow.
However, it was what we saw just beyond that tree that really stunned us. We are ALWAYS on the lookout for “wildlife”. Usually it is just squirrels, some birds, occasionally deer. This time we saw up ahead a bunch of birds flitting around. Not thinking much of it we kept walking and the birds kept flying away further down the path. Mike finally noticed that these were actually Robins!! What the heck? It is the middle of January — Robins are supposed to fly south for the winter not stay around Wisconsin. We noticed a while later that they were actually digging for worms in the mud along the stream that hadn’t frozen (or been covered by snow). Later on Mike discovered that Robins will indeed stay in Wisconsin over the winter if they have food and water available. Apparently this is a safe haven for Robins for the winter.
We passed two cross country skiers and one person on snowshoes. We decided that once we finished the 3 miles and made it back to the car that we would put our snowshoes on and give them a try. That way we would really be able to compare what it was like to walk along the trail and to snowshoe along the trail. Getting the snowshoes on was a little bit of an adventure seeing as how we had never worked the bindings before, but we eventually got them on and started down the trail. After about 30 feet down the trail Mike remarked “I can tell already that walking in the snowshoes is 10 times easier than just walking”. Walking just in our hiking boots was slippery — you were constantly “spinning out” in your tracks. But with the snowsoes and their crampons you just didn’t slide — you got traction and pushed yourself forward. The trekking poles with their snow baskets were a godsend since you are a little bit more top heavy with snowshoes on and every little bit of better balance was very helpful for us old folks.
We made our way down to the Robins again — stopping and realizing that there were more than the 20 or 30 that we saw earlier and that there were probably 100 or maybe even more!!! We decided to take a little trail off to the side of the main trail and get closer to the stream and to a bridge that we saw going over the stream. We made our way down the narrow trail and found our way to the bridge. You could see lots of ducks from here. Mike even found a bobber from someone’s ill fated attempt at fishing from near the bridge. It, juxtaposed against the snow, made an interesting sight.
We made our way back to the car and after 3 miles of hiking and about 1.5 miles of snowshoeing. One of the best things about Splorin’ so close to home, was that we were so close to home. We were back home and in “soft pants” before all the snow melted from our hiking boots!! Yet another successful Splorin’ Saturday!
Splorin' Saturday 