Adventures in Snowshoeing...

Friday night I went snowshoeing!! I had never been before so I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I drove up to Brighton with a few people from the ward (I didn't really know any of them since I'm still fairly new to the ward) and when we got there the guide handed us all showshoes and told us to put them on. He did finally instruct us on how to do this after we all started putting them on, which was before we read the warning that says putting them on incorrectly could result in injury or death. Okay, if they want us to read a warning first, maybe they should put it so it was in front of us and not behind us. I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly don't have eyes in the back of my head.

Mindy and I (my new friend in the ward) had a great time coming up with marching drill songs:

I don't know and I don't care
If I run into a bear

I've got snowshoes on my feet
I can out run one if we should meet

I've got a glowstick in my hair
That can double as a flare

Yeah...corny, but we were laughing so hard it was hilarious! Here we are before our journey began:

This is a picture of me anxious to get going! I was wishing I had some of those cool ski poles like some other people had (mine are invisible):

Part of our group:

I apologize for this blurry picture. It's hard to take a picture while walking! This was our group heading out on our trek. Here we are walking across Silver Lake.

Me walking across Silver Lake, forging my own path:

I had never walked across a frozen lake before and I was completely in awe of this moment. And walking across it in the dark with only the moon and stars (and glowsticks) to guide me was a breathtaking experience.

Our group taking a breather. I was glad we got to stop a time or two because it was harder than it looked at times. I definitely got in my cardio workout for the day!

Me during one of our breathers. The flash was so bright on this picture that I was blinded for about 10 seconds:

We were out for about two hours and surprisingly enough it wasn't as cold as I was expecting. Probably because we were moving the entire time. We estimated that we walked about 4-5 miles. I was certainly tired by the time we were finished, but overall I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.