Walk with Strangers

Ryan Travers a friend from work leads a group of friends on winter snowshoe hikes each Monday night.  He mentioned it to me--so I joined them, along with Chris Beatty.

The trail head is opposite Anita Avenue--across Hwy 17.  We followed one particular route--with Beatty leading--Ryan was off sick (I suspect a Bronco's fan).  Normally Ryan leads and according to group members, he takes them off-trail into the unknown regularly.  There were many off-shoot trails so the area is ripe for further exploration.  The snow was deep but the well-worn trail was easy to follow.  Some ups and downs, and except for one part where I felt we were running from Nazis, it was generally an easy walk.

We met at 7:30 and hiked for a little over an hour.  It was a clear night.  The stars were bright and visible.  A small crescent of moon--bottom half showing.  The temperature was about -17 but you couldn't feel it.  Everyone was warm from the exertion of snowshoeing. Everyone had a headlight but myself.  I like to walk in the dark.

There were about 10 people in the group including Ryan's wife Michelle and their two very happy dogs--all strangers except Clem Amyot and his wife Lise.  Clem's a local building contractor and after the hike, over coffee he relayed stories of building a school in Jamaica with local high school students.  Inspiring.

You never know who you will meet or what you will see on a dark night hike--go for it.