Last Thursday it finally happened: we got snow! And not just a little bit, but a whole 45cm in a day. That kind of snowfall combined with windspeeds exceeding the name of this blog meant that the whole city was shut down for the day - the schools, day care, offices and even the roads were closed. Not that I would have wanted to go out anyway, as the risk of a) being blown away by the wind or b) being hit by a car not seeing you or c) being buried in flying snow was very high.
So, we spent the whole day indoors watching our neighbours car being buried, cm by cm, in snow. At the end of the day it looked like this:
Once the city had dug itself out of the snow on Friday, it was time to finally enjoy! The winter sun, that I have previously written about, showed itself once more both on Saturday and Sunday and we had the chance to try out our new toys that had just arrived by post:
I had been snowshoeing before a couple of times but being here by the wonderful hiking paths of the East Coast Trail and all the other walks made us decide to buy showshoes of our own. This time we had a sick kid at home so it was not possible to venture into the wilderness for a whole day right away, but instead we went to the Pippy Park campgrounds, which are 7min drive from our home.
There is a trail for snowshoeing and groomed, free cross-country skiing trails for a few kilometers. The best part is that they also have equipment rental and they are open in the evenings with lit trails!
I was a bit suspicious at first at the "campground" concept, but having stayed at Canadian campgrounds before, I knew that they were normally not open plain grassfields like you often see in Europe, but in the forest and with beautiful settings. So is this and the only things reminding of the campground were the entrance and some picnic tables scattered here and there.
Snowshoeing was a lot of fun, even on a track like this! You felt like being in the forest and in the middle of the nature, even though the city was just by your feet. I look forward to exploring some of the paths a bit further away from home as well, in the hopes that the snow will stay for a few more weeks. Right now it looks like this:
On Sunday I decided to try out the cross-country trails and my own skiing condition (NOT GOOD!). For 5 bucks an hour I got an OK pair of skis, boots and poles, and went around the different loops of the campground. It felt almost like being in Finland! The sun was shining the whole time and there were lots of people out an about. Here are some impressions from the trails.
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| Here I felt like in Ylläs! Except for the big building on the left, which is the provincial government's seat, the Confederation Building. |
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| In some parts there was no trail for classic style, but that was more an exception than the rule. |
I do have to mention that the weekend was also somewhat characterised by endless checking of news from Copenhagen and Denmark, and while going around in the nature I spent a lot of thoughts to our old hometown. I still am.
