This winter Linn County Conservation will again provide the opportunity to build a pair of snowshoes from a kit. Conservation Education Specialist Chuck Ungs will guide participants through the snowshoe building process. Ungs has built 30 plus of these kits to date and has lead more than 100 others in past classes, so is qualified to lead you through the process. Those who have taken the class in the past have been very pleased with the finished shoes and have enjoyed the class. These sets would make a unique gift, functional tools or would be a grand decoration.

The first class will be held the evening of Sunday, December 18. Participants should also plan to attend the other evening sessions on December 20 and 21. These evening classes will start at 7 p.m. and end at 10 p.m. at Wickiup Hill Outdoor Learning Center, near Toddville. Additional evenings will be shorter to coat the shoes with varnish at our shop near the junction of County Home Road and Hwy. 13.

Participants must pre-register and pay by December 13, so kits can be ordered. The $165 class fee includes the cost of a snowshoe kit, a binding set and varnish for each participant. To pre-register or for more details and options please call 319-892-6485 or e-mail Chuck.Ungs at LinnCounty.org . Attendance at all three evening sessions is highly recommended. Kit building typically requires the manual dexterity of someone high school age or older.

With some time invested at home, kits can be completed before New Years. After lacing is completed we will be varnishing the snowshoes on a variety of evenings at the Conservation Department shop near our headquarters. For best results, two or three of these additional evenings will be required to varnish the shoes properly. Class size is limited to 15 individuals.