Hiking Every Month: January

Okay, it wasn't traditional hiking, but I am counting snowshoeing six miles as my January hike, because it was HARD, as snowshoeing always is.  Only this time, since it was a race, since the snow was sparkling so enchantingly, and since I was with my best friend, I didn't really realize how hard it was.

Cori emailed me back in December and said, "If I pay for your entry into this snowshoe race, will you drive down here and do it with me and Melonie?"  Um, yes.

I have felt like I've known Cori's friend Melonie for a long time, because she talks about her so glowingly, and because I met Melonie's mom last April when Cori and I were driving back from our trip to Bryce Canyon.  We did finally meet in December, and the three of us went on a six mile run near Cori's house.  I knew Melonie was "true" when, in the middle of our run, she suddenly stopped and turned around and started laughing at something.  This is what it was:

Someone had planted a mannequin arm in the grass alongside the Jordan River bottoms . . . it made our run so delightful.

So, the three of us met up again to run in the 10K at the Bigfoot Snowshoe Festival in Midway, Utah, which is up Provo Canyon in Heber Valley.  The pictures do not do the day justice--the snow was so frozen and sparkly that you could see thousands of individual flakes blanketing the ground.  Some people were snowshoeing the FIFTY KILOMETER course, but we were more than happy with our ten kilometers.

It was a perfect day.