Waiting for the snow
With scant snowfall in December, the snowshoes have been idle at the Trenton’s reaction office.
That’s expected to change anytime now.
“We had someone book two this morning,” recreation director Martin Bates said on Wednesday afternoon.
“Someone getting ahead of the storm.”
Trenton’s recreation department acquired the snowshoes a few years ago – with the help of Active Pictou County and the province of Nova Scotia – and they are lent out, at no cost.
“It wasn’t just for Trenton, but all of Pictou County,” said Robin Meyer, the town’s recreation programmer.
“And offering them for free allows people to try it without any financial output. Some people take them into the park here, but a lot of people will take them home and use them on other trails.”
There are 62 pairs of snowshoes on site — about 30 of them for children — and often, they have to be booked ahead of time, especially leading up to any given weekend.
“If you wait until Friday to call, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to get them,” Meyer added.
The recreation department in Pictou also has a few pair of snowshoes available for tempor- ary use. The library system in Pictou County offered snowshoes for free last winter, but a spokesman at the New Glasgow library said it was a one-year program that will not be continued this year.