Well, believe it or not but Donna and I felt a twinge of sadness in the last week of February when a warm couple of days saw a significant thaw of the winter snow. It appeared spring was coming in fast and this winter wonderland of white fluffy stuff and ice was quickly ending. A plea of help to the St Matthews High School sport department was successful in securing three sets of snow shoes enabling us to experience the world of snow shoeing before the snow disappeared.

On Feburary 27th we loaded the borrowed snow shoes into the car and headed for Petrie Island, a conservation area on the Ottawa River, a mere 5 minute drive from our house. Petrie Island has quite a few kms of interpretive trails stretching along the river banks and when everything is frozen it is possible to safely cross the backwaters and shallow swampy areas as well.

I can tell you I felt a bit self concious about sitting in a public car park kitting up with snow shoes and having absolutely no idea what I was doing. But what the hell, we buckled up and off we went. It was not that hard to manage the huge feet as long as you remembered to move your feet when turning, particularly if turning sharply. Not doing so could see you cross legged very quickly.

I didn't have long to worry about being self concious as soon after we started we crossed fresh prints of others in snow shoes. Whew, we are not the only crazy ones here!

Petrie Island is an interesting place and should be great value when thawed out. There was plenty of small animal tracks in the snow, probably squirrels, and bird prints everywhere. This should be a great bird spotting (feathered variety) and small animal viewing location in the spring and summer. We hadn't gone that far, maybe a km, when we spotted trees that had been chewed down by beaver. Wow! This is within sight of human habitation and only about 2km from the settlement, suburb or town whatever you want to call it, of Orleans and only probably 20 minutes drive from the CBD of Ottawa. We will be back to this spot in the early morning or late afternoon in summer to try and spot these critters!

We didn't have to worry about winter finishing early, because the next day we had a dump of snow with snow falls of 15cm -20cm on the Monday and back to well below zero temperatures. What do they say here? March can come in like a lamb and go out like a lion? Spring does not officially start until 21 March so we can expect plenty of winter conditions for the next few weeks at least.