This morning I put one of my Christmas gifts to work up American Fork Canyon. The local bike club organizes a weekly snowshoe hike. Since there is not a lot of outdoor biking going on around here (mostly ridden by people with suspended drivers licenses,) and snowshoeing shares many of the same muscle groups as riding the group is pretty dedicated.

So we started at about 6500 ft and walked about 4 miles roundtrip gaining 1500 ft in elevation. It was beautiful and quiest except for the sound of snow crunching. It was also cold, about 8 degrees at 8000 ft. My hat had ice coating it from the sweat coming through. We did have to jump across one stream and I took a picture of the little waterfall just for Lowell. Timpanogos kept peaking through the trees and I think I could take a lot of pictures of that mountain. It is one of my favorites because you can go all the way around it.

I did not buy poles since I have heard a lot of great points on both sides of the argument, but as I was sliding down on my bottom a few times going down, I thought I might pick up some poles this week before next Saturday. Not that sliding out of control down a goat path wasn't fun, but I would like to do the sliding by choice. Maybe it will be warmer next week.