Hi everyone!  Well, let’s get right into the final part of my little adventure snowshoeing…

I slid through that soft snow to the edge of the cliff!  I stopped right at the edge!  That was just so close.  Too close.  I was afraid to move.  But I could hardly stay there, so I rolled over slowly away from the cliff edge.  Unfortunately I hurt my knee, opposite leg to my twisted ankle, which was now throbbing quite badly.  I had to get out of there quickly before my knee and ankle got too swollen and stiff.  No one knew where I was.  And it was now windy which made it feel even colder.  Hmm.  Well, I looked at the other broken tree.  Why not?  What choice do I have?

It didn’t seem as solid as the last one and the branches were smaller, but it’s the only way to reach that twig.  I was hoping that twig was actually bigger than it looked.  Right.  With the tree in place I started to climb again.  But even as high as I could be on that tree, I still couldn’t reach that twig.  I had my snowshoes strapped to my arm, so I reached up with one snowshoe and tried brushing away the snow.  It was working.  And that twig had some little branches on it.  That was good.  Now if I could just hook my snowshoe on there.  Did it!  Except it wouldn’t stay on.  Sigh.  Now what? 

I climbed just a little higher and stood right on the top of that broken tree, hoping that it wouldn’t move, and I could just reach that little shrub.  I took my mitt off and grabbed that shrub tightly with my bare hand and pulled.  Amazingly it held and soon I had my other hand on the little balsam tree.  By pulling and sticking my feet into the snow I managed to get up to the next level which was just a small ledge not much bigger than me.  I sat in the snow to rest a bit.  My knee and ankle were quite swollen by now and the pain was getting worse.

There was a large pine at the top not far from me and while I was looking at it a hairy woodpecker flew by and landed on the tree.  He looked down at me and called loudly.  Maybe trying to encourage me?  It wasn’t so steep now as I struggled through the snow finally making it to the top.  I sat at the base of that big pine.  The chickadees were still around singing their name so cheerfully.  I still had a long walk back.  There was no way I could use my snowshoes now, my ankle was very swollen and paining badly.  And my knee was also throbbing terribly.

So, without the snowshoes, I had to walk and push my way through snow that was nearly waist deep at times.  I headed in the direction of one of my old snowshoe trails.  Walking would be easier then.  Those trails get hard after a bit and it’s like walking on a sidewalk.  It was 3:30 pm when I finally found the trail.  It took a long time to get back home, it was nearly dark.  Normally it wouldn’t have taken that long but I had to walk rather slowly.  And the wind was very cold.  But I did get to see a beautiful sunset across the lake as I was walking back.  It took a few days for my knee and ankle to return to normal, but once they were okay it was time for another snowshoeing adventure…

I hope you have enjoyed this little adventure.  Most of my snowshoeing times were quite normal, but, some were a bit different.  Until the next adventure, I hope you have a great weekend and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

© 2020 Steve McLeod.