First time in Snow Shoes

I was up at 4:00 am this morning.

Let's just let that sink in a bit. 4:00 am is so early it's really late from the night before. I call myself a 'morning person' but generally speaking, 4:00 am is not what I mean. I'm more of a 7:00 am kind of guy.

But I digress. I had good reasons to be up so early. I had a gondola to catch at 5:20 am on Grouse Mountain - all so I could be ready for a 6:00 am start for my first mountain trek on snow shoes. On a good day, when I am feeling motivated, I will get up early to ride my bike around Stanley Park, which admittedly is an enjoyable way to get exercise. However, just the day before my boss offered to take anyone who was interested on this morning hike with snow shoes. I was in.

The plan was to start hiking while it was still dark so that we could be at a good spot to watch the sun rise over the Lower Mainland. Roy (my boss) was kind enough to lend me the gear required for the day - a pair of snowshoes, a head mounted light and 'gators'. The last item is basically leg skirting to keep out snow and wetness from entering in your boots. All three items turned out to be very helpful and I was happy to have them.

Our guide for the hike was Eric. He had the perfect personality for this kind of job and it soon became clear that I was hiking with frequent visitors to the mountain as he knew Roy and the others quite well.

I could go on about the actual hike, but I think the pictures speak better than I could. In short, it was fantastic, I had a great time and everything went off according to plan. We saw wildlife, Matt Lauer from the Today Show, Eric named off most of the local mountains as they came into view and of course, we saw our sunrise from the top of a mountain.

I already can't wait to convince Holly to come out with me next time.