A good number of people started their new year off at Columbus County Park for the first Shoe Year’s Day event, sponsored by the St. Clair County Parks and Recreation Commission, St. Clair County Health Department and the Blue Water YMCA.  The event began at 10:00 a.m. for a hike through snow-covered trails on snowshoes which had been borrowed from the Pine River Nature Center.  Snow shoeing  was suggested to recreation departments around the state of Michigan by the Department of Natural Resources as a way to highlight  the parks and spark the residents interest in outdoor exercise.  Columbus County Park offers  a park lodge with modern restroom facilities and a picnic pavilion  has been constructed near the main parking lot and sledding hill. The lighted sledding hill is open from 8:00a.m. to 7:45p.m.