Blaze a Trail in the Fresh Fallen Snow 

Join Jaime as she learns the ins and outs of snowshoeing with Shawano Pathways. Jaime met Matty out at the Sugar Shack Snowshoe trail off County A North of Shawano to take in the beautiful fresh snow and work up a sweat.

transcript

– Good evening and
welcome to Shawano News,

your positive source in a crazy world.

I’m your host, Jaime Lee.

Tonight, we’re at the
Sugar Shack Hiking Trail

Shawn Pathways.

Let’s put on our snow shoes
and hike to the full moon.

(upbeat music)

One of the volunteers and
park rangers and guides,

Mary Lisa, is kind enough to
let me borrow her snow shoes,

and is gonna let me know
how to put these things on.

What do I do here?

– Okay, I need you to
just step right in here.

Twitch your toe all the way
up to the, there you go.

And then heel down, excellent.

– These seem pretty fancy, are these?

– You know, I got these for Christmas.

– You’re lucky.

– I must have met a great girl.

I got an upgrade this year for Christmas

– And I love your Eagle
hat, what’s his name?

– Thank you.

Sparky Eagle is gonna be helping me guide

the orange trail hike tonight.

– Awesome.

– Mm hmm, and then the bindings
just come around like this.

Lots of shoes have different bindings,

but this one’s like a ski binding.

You’ll recognize that when I just start.

You just kind of ratchet it back.

– Mary Lisa, maybe I am naive,

or like I said, haven’t done this before,

but I thought snow shoes are
those big wicker wooden things.

– Well, things sure were.

The original snow shoes were
ones that were, you know,

they were all woven and
made out of the big,

like a big wooden frame.

And that’s what they were.

– But these are modern,
and now I have these poles.

– And yes, you’ll be very stable.

– I think I’m set, guide me.

– You look like you’re ready to go.

– Shawano Pathways, vroom, vroom!

– We have the pleasure of speaking with

Shawano Pathways President, Nancy Koeller.

Thanks for having us, Nancy.

– We’re grateful that you’re here.

It’s fun to be outside with you.

– A little cold.

I think we picked one of
the coldest days of year.

Is it like two degrees out?

– It’ll be close to that tonight.

Yes, it’s one of our
colder snow shoe hikes.

We’ve been lucky with weather so far

but tonight is definitely

for your double mittens and hand warmers.

– And luckily we’ll be doing some exercise

and warming up.

– Yes, you do stay much warmer.

We’re cold now cause we’re
kind of standing still.

But once we get moving out in the woods

with our snow shoes on
and our using our poles,

we’ll warm up.

– And last night we got some fresh snow,

so does that help?

– It does, it makes it more
fun to walk on the trails.

– Nice and, nice and crunchy.

– Yes, that’s right.

– So can you tell us when people come

and wanna do the snow shoeing,

they come and they first register.

Tell me what people need to
do, when they need to come,

and what this all entails.

– Sure, we’d like people
to come and register,

so we know who’s here and
if there’s an emergency,

we know who to contact.

So there’s a little registration
card like every event has.

And then they’re gonna choose
which hike they wanna be on.

The short hike, which is under an hour.

The medium hike, about an hour.

The long hike,

we’re probably not gonna
go real long tonight.

We’re gonna keep it a little shorter,

maybe just over an hour.

And there’ll be guides
on each of these hikes.

One or two guides with lights
so nobody will get lost,

but we like to acquaint
people with these trails

so they can come back and
do it on their own anytime.

– And I also see you have some
little supplies for everyone.

What do we all have here?

– Well, if you need some sugar
to warm up, and some energy,

we’ve got some granola bars

and a little bit of candy.

Some neck warmers too, so if
you feeling the breeze here

we have a Shadow Pathways
special neck warmer.

And we’ve got hand warmers
and I’m using mine already.

My hands get really cold,

so I’ve always got a pair of hand warmers.

If somebody didn’t bring one,

we’re glad to have ’em take one of ours.

– Now do participants need to
pre-register for this event

or can they just show up?

– They can just show up

and we’ve got another two hikes coming up,

so I think you’re gonna talk about those.

But next week at Kroenke Lake,

and then two weeks from now,

we’re back here at the Sugar Shack.

No need to pre-register
for either one of those.

People, just show up,

come about 15 minutes
before the start time

so you can get your snow
shoes on, get your mittens on,

register and decide which
hike you’re gonna take.

– And we will tag and
put that in a description

with all the times and the locations

at either again,
shawanopathways.org on Facebook,

but will also be on this
Facebook description.

Can we let the participants also know

they have to bring their
own snow shoes and claws?

Or what are these things called?

– Poles.

– What is some advice you have
for a first time snow shoer?

– Well, first of all,

it’s gonna be hard to
get on the snow shoes.

The hardest part about snowshoeing

is getting your snow shoes on.

So you have to just stick with it,

get the snow shoes on,

and it’s easier once that part is over.

– I think this is the perfect segway

to have my old teacher, Matty,

show me the ropes of snow shoeing.

So come on Matty, time for gym class!

(bell rings)

Who says I can’t redeem
myself from gym class in 1996?

Here, we have Matty for a
little winter instruction

on snow shoeing.

We’re here at the beginning of the trail,

where you’ll notice the path.

Can you tell us about,

if people come here by themselves

without one of these special
dates, what they can see?

– Well, we got a grant
to identify and map,

and signed six routes, three here,

and three over at Kroenke Lake.

And so the maps are available
in these map holders.

So if people come on their own,

we suggest they pick up a map.

And then we also have
these laminated ones.

A few out the area.

There’s about seven of them out there.

So people can say, okay, I am there.

So kind of know where
they are a little bit.

– And isn’t this kind of
a divine timing again?

We did the grace trail episode,

and now I have the pleasure of
doing another trail with you.

– Yeah.

– So tell a snow shoe
virgin what to do here?

How do I get it going?

What is safe for me?

And how do I walk decent?

– Well, you walk just
like you normally would.

Your right and left opposite.

Yep, and you don’t have to run with them.

You find out that it’s
hard to walk backwards.

– Yeah, moonwalk, okay.

– So it’s just opposite arm and leg,

lifting your toes a little
bit if there’s deep snow.

Otherwise, the front of your snow shoe

will catch in the snow.

So just kind of kick your toes up a bit.

And then one thing about being
out here in the wintertime.

There’s no mosquitoes, there’s no ticks.

It’s quiet.

You just dress.

And you can always dress and stay warm.

The magic words are dress in layers.

Cotton kills, so forget
about cotton clothes.

Find some good insulating
for your first layer.

Then a warm clothing for your second,

and then wind protection for your third.

Now today, I think you have
four layers on, don’t you?

– I do, four, leggings on.

– And your hat, that’s so important.

Cause we lose a lot of
heat through our head.

– And just disconnecting again

from the busyness of the
internet, and town, and TV.

We’re out here in nature and
oh, I just feel that breeze.

There’s not a breeze,

but just that chill on your
face makes you feel alive.

– In fresh air.

You know, when I get done
hiking out here, I go home,

and it’s just, I’m a different person.

Because I think being
outside helps you heal,

it just, you’re breathing fresh air

and you aren’t working on
your list of things to do.

You’re just playing, enjoying nature, and.

– And again, right here in
the backyard of Shawano.

– Yeah.

– Such beautiful nature
to enjoy right here,

right where we live.

– Yeah.

– Let’s keep hiking.

Can you tell us how the
land owners came together

and decided this?

– Well, I went to all of ’em.

I hiked this area quite a bit.

Tom and Karen Rover live across the road,

and they’ve always said,
go ahead and do that.

And I know the Windorfs and Ingos,

they always cook their maple syrup.

And so we’ve hiked here before.

And then when we got this idea

of starting snowshoe paths, making a map,

I went to the Bitner
brothers, three Bitners,

and they have the maple syrup pipeline,

which is really really
a neat thing to hike.

And that’s on the other side of the swamp.

– Is that why this is named
the Sugar Shack Trail?

– Yes, cause all trails lead
back to the Sugar Shack.

And what’s really neat,
like on our March 5th hike,

they will give us a tour.

Anybody who wants to see
how the sap is cooked up.

And they sell maple syrup that day.

– Well, how sweet is that?

– It’s very sweet.

It’s very sweet.

So it’s the Windorfs,
and then Steve Miller,

or Steve Grover, owns some land up there.

So we’ve got many generous land owners,

who just said, go ahead,
hike on it, enjoy it.

– Local kindness.

– You bet, mate.

– And you know what’s
extra special tonight?

It’s a full moon.

– I know, that’s why it’s
called a full moon hike.

(mimics wolf howling)

– Full moon hike.

Let’s get going, girl.

– Okay, let’s go.

(poles digging into the snow)

– Like you said, this is
a really good exercise.

You’re using all your muscles.

You don’t have to race.

You can kind of zone out

or you can maybe work up a little sweat

and you’re not even worried
that it’s only three degrees up.

– Well, you know, it’s so
good because any age group,

any person can do this.

If I’m alone and I wanna
get a good workout in,

I just go as fast as I feel like going.

But if you’re just here
to enjoy the beauty

and visit with people,
you can do that too.

So if you wanna workout,

so many people think snow
shoeing isn’t a workout,

but it certainly can be,

especially if you’re breaking trails with

through fresh snow.

– Well, Matty, I think that
we’re new hiking partners.

– I think we could do this again.

– I love it.

– And, and you passed up the
classes for the third time now.

– Yay, I get an A, thanks Matty.

Look who I ran into.

We have two people from
Arkdale, Wisconsin.

Drove two hours specifically
to come to this trail.

How did you guys enjoy it?

– We loved it.

We only wish we would’ve
taken one of their maps.

(laughter)

– So you were able to
find your way though,

just by the trails?

– They were, they had
it marked really well.

– Great.

– Yeah, it was beautiful.

– And would you suggest other
people come to this trail?

– Absolutely.

We may come tomorrow
morning to do it again.

– Yeah.

– Wow, it was that good.

– Yeah, it was.

– Well, thank you for
coming to Shawano Pathways,

enjoying our area.

– Thank you.

– Welcome to Shawano.

– Thank you.

– Another full circle moment.

I am here with Kevin, who reminded me

I met him on the first
story at the ambulance.

A year later, and we’re back
doing the trail together.

Kevin, thanks for all your
hard work saving lives

in your day job.

And now you’re here
helping maintain the trails

through the pathways.

Tell us your job, your
volunteer here, what you do.

– We go along.

We replace signs that have
gotten tipped over by storms.

You know, the things happen,

where a branch will come
down and knock a sign over.

We re-orient them if necessary.

Sometimes branches come down

across the trail and
we have to clear those.

So we’ve gotta remove ’em out of the way.

There’s times that we’ve
had to rebuild bridges

across some of the water ways
that don’t free sufficiently

that we can get across them.

So all of those things are
things that take materials.

They take money to buy the materials

and it takes, you know, volunteers’ time.

So we enjoy doing it.

I love, you know,

being able to help support
pathways by going out

and maintaining these trails.

The more we use them,
the more we enjoy ’em.

– So like you said, Kevin,
it takes a lot of time,

effort and funds to keep this going.

So if you’re interested in
donating to Shawano Pathways,

please again, visit their
website at shawanopathways.org,

or the Facebook page.

Again, you’ll have opportunities to donate

and you’ll see the
schedule for more trails

and hikes to come.

Thanks, Kevin.

I guess you’re Shawano’s
new star, second episode.

– Yeah.

(upbeat music)

– Oh that was a beautiful
afternoon, Michelle.

Thanks for coming again.

I’m with Michelle, the
Shawano News family.

And until next time,

this is Jaime Lee, signing
off for Shawano News.

Keep living and loving in the 54166.

Let’s go, girl.

(upbeat music)