The backcountry beatings will continue until morale improves

Be forewarned....there is no gnar in this post.  In fact....let me lead off by sharing a picture of Usnea....commonly known as Old Mans Beard.

This I took while waiting for Mrs. Maadjurguer to catch up to me on the skin track.  She agreed to give snowshoeing a try and was curious as to what I actully do on a weekly basis when the snow is down....so I jumped at the chance to take her out for a mellow tour.  Hitching her snowboard to my pack, she followed me up the track.  Thanks to Dara and Troy for lending the showshoes....we will be buying some soon.  While waiting for her to catch up to me, I thought back to my 1st backcountry day....the fear and stress of the unknown, the exhaustion, the realization that as fit as I thought I was....I was not.....all of this, she was going through.  I was humbled by this realization....not because I've progressed so far from this point; but because she had taken the leap of faith to share with me the beauty of the backcountry and all of it's unknowns.

After giving her the cursory etiquette talk regarding skin tracks and showshoe tracks, we were aghast at the damage already done to Dutchmans.  Apparently, it had been gang raped by a pack of roving showshoes hellbent on tracking it up for themselves with no regard for other users. Nevertheless, we climbed higher with the goal for a 'secret' glade or two off of the beaten path.  Upon reaching our goal, I dug a pit and observed the following.

With nothing reactive observed on the skin up, a solid pit reading and the sun baking the crust into a nice creamed corn; the conditions were ripe for the picking.  I took a few turns first in light blower on top of forgiving cream cheese and then turned around to snap some of the new maggot....

As she slid to a stop above me, I think I caught the moment when smiles form....or perhaps it's the realization that my helmet makes her head look tiny....

With her 1st day going long, we returned to dutchmans for our exit out...only to find more damage done by snowshoes gone amuck.  I'm not sure if the look on her face is that of disgust, or exhaustion....nevertheless, a lot was accomplished for a first timer and I was profoundly proud of her willingness to try something outside of her comfort zone.

To top the day off, we bought some Uncle Buzz's chocolates, had some Surf & Turf at Karma and finally got my hands on some Ranger......and not to be outdone....a late night stop at Primo's for a Tucson dawg put the cherry on the top of a wonderful day.