Last year I didn’t start trail running until late February or early March so I never really had to run in the snow.   This year is starting out with some real winter weather so my last two runs have been done with snow on the trails and more snow falling.   I was a bit hesitant on Saturday morning to head out onto semi bad roads to meet up with the Seattle Running Club group at Bridal Trails to do 10 miles in the snow but I went and had a blast.

So this morning I took off again for the Redmond Watershed with light snow falling.  The park gate was closed so I had to park in a neighborhood and run over to an access trail which I’d never been on before.  I did a 5 mile loop in what was heavy snow at times running through snow up to 4″ deep in places, slush, mud and big puddles in other places.  I had to go over and under a half dozen new downed trees too.  I had a blast!  I was like a kid out playing in the snow for the first time.  I’ve run the Watershed hundreds of times in the past year but today it felt like a whole new place all covered in white.

So what have I learned in my two outings with ‘barefoot’ shoes in the snow?  First off, traction is required so the Inov-8 Baregrip 200 is the shoe of choice.  You can see the great traction in the footprint above, they just do not slip in the snow or slush or mud.   Second, wool socks are important.  I did not wear wool socks on Saturday and my feet were very wet and frozen by the end of 10 miles.  Today I wore wool socks and my feet were still wet but not quite as frozen.   Plus, running through the deeper snow on the way out of the park totally cleaned my shoes of the mud that had built up from the last few runs, an added bonus of running in the snow.   I’ve also decided that snow falling is much better than rain falling, at least you don’t get totally soaked by the snow.

So while Seattle roads are terrifying in the lightest snow, the trails are great and I’m never going to let a little white stuff stop me from enjoying my runs.