NO BUDGET SNOWSHOES
Here's how Tom Russell made his own snowshoes from natural materials and labored through several tries to construct a fancy bent-wood pair.
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FIGURE 1: After cutting saplings to the same length, trim the ends so that the faces come together as flat as possible.
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by TOM RUSSELL
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Up here in Wisconsin, other far northern states and Canada,
it's not unusual for four feet of snow to cover the ground
in February.
At that time of the year, snowshoes are the only workable
means of cross-country transportation and it's really a
trip to strap on a pair, walk four miles through the woods,
observe lots of wildlife . . . and never see another person
or a road.
The only trouble (for me, at least) is that snowshoes cost
about $40 and, last January, I didn't have $10—let
alone $40—for such gear. I decided to make my own
from natural materials and labored through several tries to
construct a fancy bent-wood pair. All such attempts failed,
however, since our area has no ash trees (and ash is the
only wood that really takes and holds the proper curves
when steamed and bent into snowshoe frames).
Eventually I gave up trying to build for pretty and decided
I'd just build for stout by making my snowshoes from
whatever creek saplings and string I had on hand, The
finished gear you see in the pictures with this article
cost me only one day's labor. It won't win any beauty
contests, that's for sure, but it does keep me on top of
the snow.
The frames of my down-home footwear are long, fairly
straight sticks that are not too crooked, about as thick as
your thumb at the small, not much bigger on the other end
and four to five feet long (choose the longer lengths for
taller people). Try to take your framing members from spots
in which the saplings are obvious ly growing too thickly
and cut sticks that are springy enough to bend somewhat
without breaking.
