Nina, Trixie's friend, wanted to do something special for her boyfriend P's birthday and we came up with snowshoeing especially when we realized he hadn't tried it yet. So Trixie collected a pair of snowshoes for Nina (thanks V), got some fuel for the stove, hot chocolate, and Pop Tarts for a snack. There was a lot of snow in the Ottawa-Hull area the night before and the morning of P's birthday, which wass perfect for snowhoeing. P rented a pair of snowshoes from Gatineau Park's trailhead.
We snowshoed the Wolf Trail, up to the lookout point and back. Once we were on the trail, there was a sense of peace and tranquility in the woods. The only sound to be heard was the crunching of snow from our snowshoes and our laughter floating up through the trees.
It was was an uphill climb and a good one at that, it's always good to have a little struggle when doing something like this, as the reward at the top is more deserving and worthwhile. Once we made it to the top, we ate (more like enhaled) our Pop Tarts. The view from the Lookout Point was one of grey skies, with an endless amount of snow covering the dips and highs of the valley and covering the limbs of the barren trees thus giving a scenery of a winter wonderland beauty.
Trixie pulled out her single burner stove to boil water and we made some damn good hot chocolate with a little something (chocolate liqueur) thrown in for extra good measure. The food gave us energy, and the hot chocolate made us all warm and toasty and thus we were ready to tackle the trail again. Going back down was so much easier and faster than going up, as there was plenty of opportunity to slide down the trail on our snowshoes. Yahoo! We came across a lot of people on our way down and they seemed to be enjoying the weather and trail just like us.
After our glorious hike, we went back to Nina's and she made us fabulous lemon-blueberry pancakes, eggs, and bacon (food of the gods). Although it went from a brunch to a dinner, it was fantastic meal, and over all it was a great day.
Happy Birthday P! Ye Ol'bugger!
