Fresh snow, sunshine and snowshoes – all you need for a fun winter’s day.

In my younger days I had my own snowshoes, the more traditional wooden kind with rawhide webbing and lamp-wick bindings. We wore soft mukluks, not hard winter boots that would hurt the webbing.

Those old snowshoes were wider than these modern ones, you had to learn to walk without getting them tangled and tripping. It wasn’t hard to do, and I could even run in them.

That was long ago and it has been years since I snowshoed, though I think I still have a pair in my basement back in Canada. I’ve never used this new metal type, which I realize are lighter and narrower than the old ones, which should make them even more fun.

I noticed these snowshoes when we were at the Bethesda Renewal Centre in Ashton, Ontario earlier this month. I gather they were there for anyone to use – but I was heading for home when I took this picture, so I didn’t get to try them out.

It does give me something to look forward to for my next visit.