Snowshoeing in Tahoe

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What a weekend so far! M and I drove up to Tahoe last night, we are having a friends weekend and met a couple of them for dinner in Truckee. I had a martini and a glass of wine but made fairly, sorta ok choices for dinner. No dessert.

We stayed up a little late back at the house but finally got into bed by around 12:30am. Fortunately I was able to sleep late and we had a lazy morning. Bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast before heading out for our big adventure of the day, snowshoeing! This was a first for me, actually I think a first for all of us. 

We got to the trailhead at 1pm (like I said, a lazy morning) and put on our snowshoes. I think a few pictures are in order.

M and I at the start

My snowshoes and poles

I was WAY overdressed. It was warmer out than I expected, plus we started with a bit of uphill. Here is the elevation profile of our hike.

So I took a layer, my hat and gloves off and was better. It was a pristine day on the hike out. After we turned around it got a bit chillies, but still not too cold or windy. 

Hiking with snowshoes was SO much more fun than I anticipated. I'd thought I would feel like I was walking with huge things on my feet, but it was actually mostly natural. We hiked a total of 4.6 miles in 3 hours, which included some stops for photo ops and a snack.

I can't tell you how much fun I had. I even started running on the way back down, which made me laugh my so hard I couldn't breathe. I might have been short on oxygen. Or maybe it was the shot of Fireball at the turnaround point. Anyway, I had MANY thoughts of gratitude for being fit enough to do this, for having the desire to work hard and enjoy nature, and for having a life that allows me to do things like this. Ok, more pictures are in order.

The whole gang - M, Chris, Caroline, Mike, Monique and Moi.

Can you tell we're having fun? 

I'm loving this!

Gor-geous!

More scenery.

After the hike we hit the hot tub for some much needed down time. Ok, well the dinner people have arrived. On to round three of the day. Good thing I'm having a cup of coffee while I'm writing this. I'm in pretty good shape but I'm not a machine. Yet!