Lunar Eclipse/Full Moon Snowshoe TR

“Webshots album (click on thumbnail)


Some of the more interesting photos:

Lunar eclipse:


Full moon and snowshoe trail:


Map of area:




Dryfoot and I headed out Saturday afternoon to get to the Oak Ridge Management Unit/Wet Bark Recreation Unit of the Richard J. Dorer Memorial State Hardwood Forest. With me yet? I know that’s a huge, long name. I made him take fun, icy county backroads – fine as long as I’m not driving. J The area is located between Houston and Bratsberg, MN. It had gotten around 30” of snow in our weeklong storm just ended.

We figured the DNR was too busy to plow the lot or groom trails for XC skiing. Correct-o-mundo! We parked along the road and put our outer gear on. It was around 23 with a wind chill to 9 degrees. We both put on too many layers, since we were FOAO in the wind! Dryfoot took along a backpack with essentials if stranded. (He later got to carry my outer jacket, too, laden with cell phone, heater packs .. but luckily I had taken out the remaining $10.50 left from the $20 of quarters I’d used earlier in the day to get the 8” of snow and ice off the top of my Jeep. Man, that was a pain! Top looked like a big pink slushy for awhile – and then pieces would fly off and hit me!! LOL)

Started off through the campground area and then went off trail. Dryfoot was GPSing our route. And we both had maps… and I kinda know the area. There are two loops, an outer loop around 5 miles that goes down into a valley and comes back out… and an inner loop of around 3 miles that stays on top of the hills. We opted for staying high, so to speak. But I’d never gone on that trail and didn’t know where it came into the other trail – with snow covering it and making it tough.

We first went down to a spot that we could come within probably 50 ft. of the trail a good half an hour later. Oh well, we were out for a hike, right?? LOL! Using the DNR’s topo map of the unit and our fine common sense (“That high spot is not jiving with the map. OH! We need to go THERE!”) we figured out where to go. The inner trail wound along the edge of a field on the hilltop, sometimes in pines, sometimes right by the field.

The heavy snow still hung on the pine trees, even with icicles in places, from the sleet/freezing rain portion of our storm. Looked totally like Christmas decorations. The snowshoes sunk in mostly 4-6” on the untrodden snow, sometimes even a foot where there were drifts. It was powdery snow. Very nice. Quite a few tracks, but not many animals or birds to be seen.

We started around 4:30, figuring to then see sunset, moonrise and the lunar eclipse, and then enjoy a full moon snowshoe hike back to the vehicle. It worked to perfection! Got to the mid-hike overlook to watch the moon coming up among the trees – and to eat a snack.

LOL, going back was fun but something of a challenge due to varying snow depths and walking by moonlight. Well, there wasn’t much moonlight at that time, it hadn’t yet risen high enough. But there were cool moonbeams in the woods. And fantastic looking giant mosquitoes and T-Rexes with the heavy snow on things.

When we crossed back over the field area to the parking lot we could see really well. I even broke trail, too! (I’m sure dryfoot said, “About time,” under his breath) At the parking lot, the camera was placed on a cleared-off wooden fencepost to get a really cool shot that captures the feel of the evening. Check it out!

We were gone about 3 hours on this 3-mile trek, including my dinking around with photos and all. How fast do you guys snowshoe? Well… phhht!!! We were breaking trail in deep, powdery snow! ;-P

A discovery: I lengthened (OK, dryfoot lengthened, but I made them even!) my trekking poles by 4”. That was perfect since they sink into the snow so much. I hadn’t thought to do that until this trip.”

“Sounds like Very Large Fun --- I'll bet it was like daylight out there with the Full Moon on snow.

(we snow-deprived citizens have to use our imaginations for such things)”

“lizs, sounds awesome! Some friends and I were doing an event cache in our snowshoes! Did 7 caches after a night of drinking! My a&^ was dragging! ; ) Check out my webshots for the pics. Say hey to Dryfoot for me!!!”

“and just what were you snacking on to have seen Giant Mossies, and T-Rex?”

“That is just way too cool girl.Thanks for the report.”

“Good report, thanks lizs.”

“Hey, Graska, will do.

the goat, hehehe...

Went out last night for maybe an hour-ish on a bike trail along a trout stream. Nice. Just deer tracks on it, etc. Whereas, the other bike trail in my area was tracked for XC skiing.”

“Full moon snowshoes - catch the craze! (the Adventurists, Bison and I were out, too) :)”

“So was I!”