Snowshoe Backpacking and Proposal

Well this was an exciting and adventure fulled weekend! Jim and I have been backpacking the last few years with the same group. We've only gone on the summer trips with them, but this year we agreed to the winter trip.

There's A Lot more stuff, heavier stuff, to bring on a winter trip. To start with there's the tent. Our normal tent is a 3 season tent (meaning spring, summer, fall probably somewhere warm), for a snowy destination we needed to rent a 4 season tent, which weighed at least twice as much as the summer one. Then there's the extra layers of clothing, the extra warm sleeping bag and a foam sleeping mat to go under our normal blow up mat. For this reason we decided to bring a sled, to make hiking up a mountain in the snow more pleasant :-)

Unfortunately the sled soon became the bane of Jim's existence, but he put up with it hitting him in the back of the legs and frequently knocking him over.

We were meeting up with two other guys that stayed the previous night, so we radioed them a few times. I'd have to say, wandering through the woods while its snowing is a lot less relaxing if you are lost... Luckily they found us and led us to their camp.

Aside from the sled issues and the temperature, it was a fun and beautiful trip! We just wore our normal skiing outfits (took off layers for the uphill stuff) and added a few layers once we got to camp. Our camp site was on the edge of a clearing with a fabulous view of the valley and Mt. Aetna. We were camped on top of about 7 feet of snow! The early birds even built a snow cave.

Once we had everything set up and a fire going we could all relax for a bit. It was snowing up until about an hour before dark. The sky clear just enough for us to check out the view. The stars that night were amazing!

In the morning everything was covered with a light layer of fresh snow. The sky was clear and the view was amazing!

I made biscuits and gravy(technically dumplings and gravy) for breakfast(nom!) and then Jim asked to go on a walk. We walked a little outside of camp and checked out the view of Mt. Aetna across the valley. Then Jim turned to me and said how much he love that I go on these adventures with him. He then pulled out the ring box and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him :-)

It was perfect, and beautiful, and everything I had dreamed of :-) There were loud cheers from the friends back at camp, and everyone congratulating us!

Once the ecstasy of the moment passed, we resumed normal packing up activities and hiked down the valley. Which resulted in Jim getting knocked down a bunch of times by the sled... poor guy. Eventually we figured out if I walked behind the sled and held a cord, he could avoid the sled attacks! Once back at the car, the family and friend notification began. I suppose my next adventure involves planning a wedding!