This February I gave Jason the same thing for Valentine’s Day that I gave him last February, a year’s supply of monthly date surprises. Now don’t you be thinking that my unoriginality is lame. I only echoed the concept from last year not the actual activities; I don’t do gift repeats. Jason’s most recent date surprise centered on snowshoeing. Since Jason and I are both suckers for new terrain and we’d never snowshoed at Solitude Mountain Resort before, you can probably guess where we decided to go.

Solitude turned out to be a great choice. It was still an abominable snowman’s paradise when elsewhere winter’s fluff was slushed beyond recognition. We shoed around the Cabin Loop and Silver Lake, which was an alpine ice block at the time. Plus, we detoured through part of the Solitude Trail. In total, we trekked a little over two miles through that sun-speckled forest. Not a terribly impressive distance? We were hiking with giant paddles strapped to our feet so give us a break!

Spring is a great time to play in the drifts. Don’t be too hasty exchanging the racquets on your feet for the one in your hand.

On a side note, sections of Solitude’s cross-country skiing trails actually go over Silver Lake. You can ski on top of a frozen lake. How cool is that? I almost wanted to toss my snowshoes just to give it a try.