February 18 Snowshoe of the Swampy Sno Park Long Loop with a Side Trip to the Nordeen Shelter
A group of seven snowshoers headed out on the Long Loop trail out of the Swampy Sno Park. It was a lovely, warmish day, but there were not a lot of cars parked in the lot. A surprise given that it was getting close to noon on a Saturday! The trail was well-tramped in, but the snow was of a light, soft texture so it didn’t make much noise under our snowshoes, facilitating conversation along the way. We made the side trip to the Nordeen Shelter and had lunch while sitting outside and enjoying the views. Once back to the junction, we completed our circuit of the long loop. A previous snowshoer had made a gigantic heart shape in the big meadow shortly before one of the junctions. It was so big that it was impossible to get a picture of the whole thing. We were reluctant to tromp around the meadow in the deep snow because we didn’t want to wreck the heart shape. We made it back to the trailhead and felt proud of ourselves for completing an almost 5 mile snowshoe!
