{"id":99781,"date":"2026-01-29T14:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/99781\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:42:11","slug":"tracking-wildlife-and-taking-in-the-winter-scenery-with-snowshoes-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/99781\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracking wildlife and taking in the winter scenery with snowshoes (PHOTOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I showed up a complete novice<\/a> to Wildlands Conservancy<\/a>\u2019s snowshoe outing Wednesday morning outside Bethlehem. <\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a right and a left?\u201d I asked Bill Murray (like the actor), a volunteer guide for the excursion who\u2019s been snowshoeing for decades.<\/p>\n

There are, he explained: The buckles should be oriented on the outside, and there\u2019s a strap that goes around the heel. Trekking poles are optional to help with stability, said Nicole Landis, senior community engagement specialist for the Emmaus nonprofit Wildlands.<\/p>\n

\"TakingThe Emmaus nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy leads a Winter Wildlife Snowshoe excursion Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, through Janet Johnston Housenick and William D. Housenick Memorial Park and Archibald Johnston Conservation Area in Bethlehem Township.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com <\/p>\n

Wildlands provided all the gear needed for about 15 people to snowshoe through Bethlehem Township\u2019s 56-acre Janet Johnston Housenick & William D. Housenick Park<\/a> off Christian Spring Road. There was no cost to participate, thanks to a Northampton County grant, and Wildlands has more free snowshoeing events on its calendar of upcoming events. Those looking to give it a try can also borrow snowshoe gear for free at Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center. <\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s focus, along with introducing newbies like myself to snowshoeing, was winter wildlife. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna be mostly focusing today on animal tracks because we have snow,\u201d Landis said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really cool time to get into tracking and wildlife. So tracks, scat, fur, feathers \u2014 looking for any kinds of sign of an animal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TakingNicole Landis, Senior Community Engagement Specialist with Wildlands Conservancy, briefs a small group before leading a Winter Wildlife Snowshoe excursion Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, through Janet Johnston Housenick and William D. Housenick Memorial Park and Archibald Johnston Conservation Area in Bethlehem Township.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com <\/p>\n

Murray, of Bethlehem, introduced the basics of snowshoeing, starting with keeping your newly clad feet about hip width apart. This helps to avoid stepping on the heel of your other snowshoe, a common cause of toppling over.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody do this: Lift your knees up and go down,\u201d he instructed. \u201cLift your other knee up and go down. That\u2019s what you want to do. You want to, like, kick your knee up a little bit, kick your knee up a little bit. And that basically helps you keep your snowshoes apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the gang mimicked his movements, a cacophony erupted as ice-crusted snow from Sunday\u2019s storm shattered beneath everyone\u2019s weight. It drowned out the hum of nearby Route 22, and a crow flew east, perhaps alarmed by the commotion.<\/p>\n

Snowshoeing is not quiet, at least not with the crusty remnants of sleet that mixed in with the foot-plus of snow that had fallen days earlier. The only animals we\u2019d scare up on our trek were a cottontail rabbit and several little, round birds. There was a moment\u2019s glimpse of a bald eagle riding thermals overhead before it soared out of view. <\/p>\n

\"TakingAnimal tracks are seen in the snow during a Winter Wildlife Snowshoe excursion put on by the Wildlands Conservancy Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, through Janet Johnston Housenick and William D. Housenick Memorial Park and Archibald Johnston Conservation Area in Bethlehem Township.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com <\/p>\n

But the tracks! They were everywhere.<\/p>\n

Tracks of cat paws crisscrossed the property that is now a township park but was once the estate of Archibald Johnston, a Lehigh University-trained engineer appointed president of the Bethlehem Steel Corp. by Charles Schwab in 1906<\/a>. He became Bethlehem\u2019s first mayor when its constituent boroughs consolidated in 1918 to form a city. The township park is named for his late granddaughter<\/a> and husband.<\/p>\n

Johnston\u2019s 1923 mansion<\/a> stands tall atop a hill on the park property. The township has renovated the exterior, and the nonprofit Archie Project<\/a> is dedicated to raising funds for further restoration to bring new life to its spacious three-story interior. It overlooks a Cedar Grove where three swimming pools once entertained guests. In the valley below, an open-air groundwater spring that once served the home still flows unimpeded by winter ice near the banks of Monocacy Creek.<\/p>\n

Murray pointed all this out to the snowshoers once they came to a halt \u2014 the last crunch of the icy crust lost on the winter wind. He showed the visitors the boat house where Johnston\u2019s family kept their craft that plied the creek in leisure. There are lime kilns, an historical feature probably installed more for celebrating heritage than processing lime for the property\u2019s farm fields.<\/p>\n

\"TakingWith the Camel’s Hump geologic feature in the background, the Emmaus nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy leads a Winter Wildlife Snowshoe excursion Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, through Janet Johnston Housenick and William D. Housenick Memorial Park and Archibald Johnston Conservation Area in Bethlehem Township.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com <\/p>\n

Raccoons seemed to have passed by the kilns, and there were indications of a deer having bedded down during or just after the snowstorm in some nearby brush.<\/p>\n

Landis took note of Wildlands\u2019 2024 work to remove six dams on the Monocacy along the park and the adjacent Archibald Johnston Conservation Area. Restoring waterways to freer flows is among the missions of the conservancy, which has also protected some 65,000 acres from development in the Lehigh Valley region and maintains 14 local nature preserves. <\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s walk offered mysteries of the natural world. Nearby the onetime Johnston estate\u2019s towering apple trees, Landis spied squirrel tracks beneath a tree limb overhead, but there was no trail. Maybe it had dropped in? What had dug away the snow to expose the ground beneath in another spot? Probably a deer looking for nuts. <\/p>\n

Where the snow is already tramped down, a natural gait seems to work fine for snowshoeing. For me, the snowshoes sank in a few inches, so trailblazing in virgin snow meant remembering to bring up those knees. <\/p>\n

\"TakingThe Emmaus nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy leads a Winter Wildlife Snowshoe excursion Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, through Janet Johnston Housenick and William D. Housenick Memorial Park and Archibald Johnston Conservation Area in Bethlehem Township.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com <\/p>\n

For hills, snowshoers might sidestep, or walk at an angle in a herringbone pattern like a skier.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re not going to be doing that today,\u201d Murray said. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to keep our right shoe away from our left shoe\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n

Snowshoer Mary Pat Lemass had only tried snowshoeing a few weeks prior, taking advantage of a friend\u2019s pair for a walk through some of this winter\u2019s earlier snow. She admitted to a wipeout, the result of stepping one shoe onto the back of the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe actually got a video, so it\u2019s hysterical,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Deanna Caracci and her family picked up some $40 or $50 snowshoes from BJ\u2019s a couple of years back for a trip to Vermont. <\/p>\n

\u201cWalking in the woods in the snow is really difficult. You always obviously fall through the snow,\u201d Caracci, of East Greenville in Montgomery County said Wednesday. \u201cBut we love to hike. So snowshoeing is nice because you can kind of walk on top of the snow and still get to see all the wildlife and still get exercise. And it\u2019s a little bit more difficult than just regular walking. So I like the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

We ended up snowshoeing about a mile and a quarter, according to my iPhone\u2019s fitness app. I was impressed by how dry my pant cuffs stayed, compared to trudging through snow in boots. And the cold was barely a factor as we heated up with the movement, despite west winds around 12 mph and an air temperature in the mid-teens making for a wind chill factor in the low single digits. <\/p>\n

Wildlands has a Beginner\u2019s Guide to Snowshoeing<\/a> event planned for 1 to 3 p.m. today at Lehigh County\u2019s Trexler Nature Preserve. Snowshoe with your Sweetheart! is set for Valentine\u2019s Day on Feb. 14, also at Trexler. Find full details through the Upcoming Events page at wildlandspa.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At Jacobsburg outside Nazareth<\/a>, snowshoes and trekking poles are available from 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the visitor center, 400 Belfast Road. At least 6 inches of snow are required, and a driver\u2019s license or other state-issued identification is required to borrow equipment. For more information call 610-746-2801 or email jacobsburgsp@pa.gov<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Find more photos from Wednesday\u2019s <\/a>snowshoeing<\/a> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I showed up a complete novice to Wildlands Conservancy\u2019s snowshoe outing Wednesday morning outside Bethlehem. \u201cIs there a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-99781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}