When it comes to some of the more popular winter activities, you might think hockey, skiing, or maybe skating.
But there's another sport that's been around for a very long time and it's one of the easiest too.
For as much fun as skiing is, when you have a big snowfall like today you might have to wait until the groomers prepare the hills.
But with snowshoes, you can get right out there.
“No grooming at all,” says Cheri Doman at Soujourn. “You might need a compass if you don't stay on the trail.”
Mickey Paleo says he's ready to join the estimated five million North Americans who snowshoe, and he's ready to take it into the deep.
“I want to take these puppies out and see if I can go off trail into the thicker stuff,” he says.
There are special snowshoes to help you when you take it off the trail, and ones to help you just take it easy. It’s a recognized sport since the mid 1800s, and snowshoes have been around much longer than that. Science has helped the snowshoe come a long way.
“Most people are excited because they're used to those big clunky old snowshoes that you have to walk like a duck,” says Mandy Bortolussi at Soujourn.
Technology has even sped up the time it's takes to get a pair of snowshoes on before you head off to the trails.
As for cost, Doman says, “Snowshoes start out at about $120 and up from there.”
Noreena says she came all the way from British Columbia to vacation with friends in "snowshoe-friendly" Ontario.
“You know that Vancouver is having a warm winter,” she says. “I think 8C when I left, so I came here for the beautiful snow that Ontario is so lucky to have.”
Snowshoeing is a sport that just about any age, any ability can participate in. And Noreena says although she loves summers swimming at the beach, she knows what she likes more.
“Be here any day at Horseshoe,” she says.
Sojurn held a snowshoe demo day today and is set to hold a Nordic ski demo day next week.
