3 hours of snow shoe bliss...

 great day out there.  my girl blossom is so adorable.  she likes to make herself forts under the pine trees.  she goes under the snow and prunes the lower twigs.  here she pops out...i tricked her.  i asked if she wanted a treat!  she did!!

 some of the trails had already been trod down a bit, but i got there at noon and there was not too many folks out there so still lots of fun deep snow.

 i just did loops around the north bivuoac trails.  not overly adventurous but still a decent work out and always pretty.

 thinking we got 12-14 inches of fresh snow...the trees were laden with the white stuff.  so pretty.

 it was still coming down a bit while i was out there.

 thought a few of the black and whites came out pretty sweet.

 trying to get little christmas treats ready for the monday walkers tomorrow.  did some baking these last few days.  will have to throw it all together tomorrow.  not done with all the christmas stuff.  probably mentally i am though . those last few gifts sometimes get hard to get done...laziness takes over.  i can only be productive for so long and then i just want to chill

 enjoy playing around on the pond with my snowshoes.  so i wrote a few words by walking around.  above is LoVE, not my best but it was my first attempt at a word on snowshoes.

 the skies cleared up a bit while i was out there.  so pretty.

 my second attempt was BLiSS.  did feel blissful out there.

 i cruised across the first boggy area and then headed to the second one. i ended up taking the mushing trail.  totally virgin snow so very fun to snow shoe.  also a bit more of a work out. i mixed it up with trails that had been passed over and others that hadn't today.

 went by myself.  well, with blossom too.

 i'm not a very good cheerleader.  i try  but i'm better at doing and action.  i'm like sheldon on "the big bang".  clueless what i'm supposed to do or say..."there there...". i can help you heal but i prefer not to listen to all the details and drama.

 a few more black and whites that i thought came out nicely.

 slept in a bit as i was hoping to be out there by 11am.

 when i got back to the car, after 3pm, the parking lot was packed full.  kinda odd to me as the sun was down and it was now going to get dark.  lots of skiers getting started.  perhaps they would just cruise up the tank trail and back. maybe they wanted it a bit packed down and that was why they waited.  not sure.

 blossom had a fun time out there.  she seems super tired after two days of really getting worked out.  i had ambitions of getting in my swim but that was not to happen.  i will try and vow to make it to the pool tomorrow.  i'm really getting the itch to get back to lifting weights as well.  always a great way to tone up.

 great sunlight out there.

 this is headed to the mushing trail.

 cool trees out there.  funky alaskan trees.

 figured there would probably be no mushers out there.  they usually groom it first and it was clearly not groomed.  it was just blossom and i too so i knew i could get her off trail pretty fast.  i could see both directions pretty far and kept a watch out.

 those dog teams go fast and if you want someone pissed at you be on a mushing trail with a dog off leash.  dog teams can't stop fast at all. it was fine.   no harm and it was totally worth it.

 another black and white.  actually, i think this was my favorite of the day.  little snowflakes coming down.

 went to an ugly sweater party tonight.  i didn't have an actual ugly sweater so i just wore a red fleece and clipped an ugly sweater to it.  i'd gotten an ugly sweater wine cozey when i was down in texas.  worked fine...it's now clipped to my tree.  hehe.

 afternoon sun.

 rio stayed home again.  don't think she wanted to get out in this snow.  she does like snow, but she has for sure slowed a bit.  seems content to stay home more of late.  part of me feels bad leaving her behind, but i also feel bad taking her when she looks fairly miserable out there.  i know she misses us, but i'm sure she's pretty happy to be on the couch.

 went a bit crazy with the sun, but it really was an amazing day out there.

 on the mushing trail.  looks like someone may have skied there the day before.  you can usually see the indention of trails past.

 didn't see any moose out there today.

 ugly sweater party was fun.  good crowd out and some fun ugly sweaters...will try and post pictures of that tomorrow.

 blossom let me break trail sometimes and she took lead other times.

 almost couldn't find out little decorated tree...it was so coated in snow...i shook it a bit so that it was easier for the animals to get too.  not much has been taken yet.

 looped around and headed back out to the main bog.

 i started seeing a lot more people once i got back to the main trails.

 the sun went down as i crossed back over.  i stayed out there and enjoyed the last bits of daylight.

 so while i waited and watched the sun, i made some snow circles with my snowshoes.

 and i wrote JOY.

 good bye sun...see you tomorrow.

 these are with my little powershot. the ones above were with my rebel.

 you can see blossom in her snow fort below, well her legs anyway.  hehe.

 dang that dog is cute!!

 the snow piled on this log give you some idea of the depth.

 my little powershot battery died while i was out there and i then discovered that the spare battery i carry around was also dead, i'd forgotten to charge the dang thing.  oops!!  just meant more lens changing.

 couldn't be my usual lazy self.  i did find my tripod and also the charge cord to my new kindle fire.  i even found that last boggle cube that went missing when i went to round island.  usually i would have tossed the rest of the game, but for some reason it was still sitting there.  the cube was in the duffle someplace and it rolled out as i got the bag out to prepare for my trip to Texas.

 we crossed the bog,  blossom breaks trail in these shots.

 she really must be tired.

i'm tired too!!  another big glass of water and i'm headed to bed.  goodnight