Snowshoeing - is it really this hard?

Over this past weekend my two friends, Katelyn and Erica, decided that we should go snowshoeing. Being a native Utahan, you might thinkt that this was an activity that we had all done numerous times. However, none of us had ever gone and so we were all not quite sure what to expect. I rented snow shoes from REI (i even became and REI member for life - cost me $15) and we headed up to Lamb's Canyon. I feared for our lives before we even got out of the car. The road was a complete slab of ice. We finally found a few cars parked on the side of the road and decided to get out and start hiking.

I asked Kate and Erica if there was a trail somewhere - and the reply i got was, "No, you just start hiking". I thought that sounded odd, but since i had never been before, i thought they might have some wisdom that i didn't. Well, this picture shows you of our frist attempt at snowshoeing.


Yes, we were hiking straight up the mountain - through bushes and trees.

We then noticed a car pull up by our car, two girls got out and crossed the road. They then looked like they were hiking up a trail. Yes ladies and gentlemen, there was a trail on the other side of the road. We ditched our black diamond snowshoeing efforts and slid down the mountain we had just hiked. We crossed the road and were soon on safe ground - well, a safe trail anyway.


The rest of the hike was great and i enjoyed my first time snowshoeing very much. I think i will do it again sometime soon.