Today Lenny and I are giving away our snowshoes. I feel it’s a passing of an era, though he thinks he’s just emptying out a closet.

We bought these snowshoes in the late 1970s when we decided to hike the winter Catskills 3500. It’s a hiking challenge that involves hiking to 35 peaks that are over 3,500 ft. in the Catskills in New York State.

We hiked all the 35 peaks – part of the challenge is that four specific ones have to be hiked in winter. Then for another patch, we had to hike all of them in the winter. So we bought snowshoes and full, 10-point crampons. On most hikes, we carried them most of the way until the snow was deep enough to need them.

I continued to use them for winter hiking until we moved to Asheville. We knew that there was never enough snow here to warrant them but I felt that if I left the winter equipment in New Jersey, I’d never buy new snowshoes and go snowshoeing again. After ten years here I still haven’t used them

But several Carolina Mountain Club members are driving to Roan Mountain in the middle of winter and snowshoeing there. Driving all that distance in the snow just doesn’t appeal to me and I’m giving them away to someone who could use them.

But I feel sad. An era has passed.