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Snowshoeing could use a rebranding campaign.
I didn't realize what the word conjured up in the mind of a 6-year-old until were halfway through our hike at Lebanon Hills Regional Park.
"This is funner than I thought," my son yelled, as he clattered down the icy trail on aluminum snowshoes. "I thought we'd just be walking around in the snow."
Maybe I should have said we were going out "snow sprinting." We did more running on ice than walking on snow during our excursion last Sunday.
In an effort to get people outdoors in winter, many nature centers and parks are renting snowshoes and scheduling snowshoe hikes. Unlike cross country skiing and ice skating, which require practice to really enjoy, snowshoeing is easy and immediately fun. Lebanon Hills has rented to children as young as 3.
After lashing our boots into the bindings of our snowshoes, my son and his friend ran down the trail, a bit bowlegged, like cowboys who had just dismounted from their horses. We walked along the frozen edge of Schulze Lake, where a sign in the snow announced "No Lifeguard on Duty."
Once into the woods, my son picked up a 5-foot-long branch and held it over his head.
"Look, I'm an endangered species," he yelled. "A human with antlers."
His friend found two stubby sticks to use as some sort of gun. My son dropped his branch to his shoulder.
"Bang! Bang, bang, bang!" he shouted.
"What are you shooting at?" I asked.
"Trees!"
The trail
Most people think of snowshoes as a way to traverse the deep, quiet woods. While blazing a trail through 3 feet of fluffy snow is a lovely experience, the newer styles of snowshoes work great in icy conditions. Lebanon Hills rents lightweight aluminum shoes with sets of steel-toothed crampons that dig into ice for traction.
We were walking on
A few places, such as Carpenter Nature Center in Hastings, also rent the more traditional wood Ojibwe-style snowshoes with gut or nylon webbing. Because this style doesn't have crampons, the shoes are more useful in deep snow or offtrail in weedy areas, where the point at the tip is used to part the brush.
We hiked for about 1 1/2 hours, stopping for breaks when we found a fallen log where we could sit and sip hot cocoa from our thermoses. The boys enjoyed planning our route by looking at maps posted at trail intersections.
We met several other groups, including two 6-year-old girls — Patti Crawford of Hudson, Wis., and Tiva Knutson of Minneapolis. It was their first time on snowshoes, too.
"If you can walk, you can do it," said family friend, Angie Farrell of Lakeville.
Near the end of our walk, the boys complained about getting tired. I suggested they take off the snowshoes, and they ran the last section of trail in boots, proving, in this case, snowshoes were sort of like hot cocoa — they weren't necessary, but they made the hike a lot more fun.
THE SCOOP
What: Snowshoeing with kids
Where: Lebanon Hills Visitor Center, 860 Cliff Road, Eagan
Information: 651-554-6530 or www.co.dakota.mn.us
Hours: 9 a.m.-5
Cost: $5 per hour and $10 for three hours for an adult, $3 per hour or $7 per three hours for a child.
Target audience: Preschool age and older
Crowd pleaser: Running down trails
Avoid: Getting dehydrated. Hot cocoa from a thermos goes down easier than cold water.
Tip: Rent poles or bring ski poles if you want an upper body workout or seek the stability. Otherwise, poles are not necessary.
OTHER PLACES TO RENT SNOWSHOES
