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Posted by WISam on February 28, 2008 at 9:02:12 pm EST
In reply to First time snowshoeing and backpacking posted by WISam on January 20, 2008 at 10:09:30 pm EST

Just got back from my snowshoe/backpack trip to the Porcupine Mountains a few weeks ago and wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped answer some of my questions about the trip. I ended up going with the Atlas 12 snowshoes which worked out great. Got a great deal on them too!! ($190) with a $19 rebate on top of that).

The thing that surprised us the most was the depth of the powder up there. Where I’m from (Milwaukee) we typically have a hard crust on the snow due to thaws or the occasional rain shower. There was no crust on the snow and we had a good 3 feet of powder all the way to the ground. What surprised me was how unevenly you sink into the ground with the snowshoes. One step, you may sink a foot or so into the snow. The next time you may step on top of a fallen tree that was completely hidden by the snow and you may only sink 6 inches. On another step you may step on the edge of something and I could see easily twisting you’re ankle if you try to go too fast. On the trails the walking was relatively easy, but off the trails, it’s amazing how many obstacles the snow hides till you step on them. The route we ended up taking took us from the ski area north to Lake Superior. From there we followed the lakeshore west till we hit Buckshot landing roughly 8 miles west of where we started. Right along the shore the walking was pretty easy as it was flat and treeless. We wouldn’t have been able to cover the first 8 miles so quickly if we had been in the woods as there are no trails in this area. By the way, Alan The sled idea worked out great. On the flat ground near the shoreline it was almost like I wasn’t dragging any weight at all. From Buckshot landing we took the Lake superior trail back northwest till we hit M-107 which is closed this time of year due to snow. Still quite a bit of Snowmobile traffic thought so we ducked off on the X/C ski trails whenever we could. Overall, it was a great and I’m actually planning on giving it another try in a couple of weeks.

All together we covered 15 or so miles. Unfortunately we could only pull off three days. For the next trip I actually managed to get 8 consecutive days off of work!!!

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