The best $10 I've spent in a long time!

Now that we close the gallery on Tuesdays during the Winter season, it gives me a chance to get out hiking and shooting. Last Tuesday I went to Beamer Conservation area in Grimsby and decided to see if I could capture any decent waterflow through the snow and ice on the stream, as we have had a fair bit of snow lately.

Starting at the top of the hill, I had to navigate my way down what is probably a 300-400 feet drop down to the stream, over a 1/4 mile or so of extremely slick ice and snow covered trail. Funny thing was, I was the only one down there:-)

 

 

Now it may not look too dangerous in this picture, but see that stream WAY down there on the right? That's a LONG drop down there!

Personally I find going down the trail much harder than coming back up, because on the way down, gravity is not your friend.

So there I was with my trusty hiking boots on and they have a pretty aggressive tread pattern, but they were no match for some of the glazed over sections. Like some of the great hikes I have done in New Zealand, albeit in summer conditions, I had to steady myself by holding on to any sort of root, branch, rock or patch of dead grasses to keep myself from rolling down the hill and becoming a human avalanche!

Well I did manage to make it all the way down and back up again - eventually! However, when I got back into the gallery the next day, I did some research on ice cleats and low and behold I found the perfect solution at Canadian Tire!

I got to try them out yesterday and these babies REALLY work well! Just stretch them over your boot and you are good to go. And they are only $10. Heck of a deal!

My only concern is that they might work too well! They gave me tremendous confidence over wet and slippery surfaces. I was fearless and that's the problem. I am way too old to be fearless:-)

So there you have it. If you are hiking over ice, snow or generally slippery conditions, I highly recommend these!

Oh, and after all that slip-sliding away last week at Beamer, here is one of the captures....

I think it was worth it:-) What do you think?

Until next time.....

Kenneth

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