Weekly adventures of the intrepid cross country skiers!
In reverse time order...
The snow potential this year is good. Let's get out there!
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12/19/08 -- Shopping by skis -- It had been a few days since we'd been able to get the van out of our driveway due to deep snow, so I decided to ski
up the bike trail to the store. The snow conditions were still good on the 520 trail
and I made good progress. I had skied on a small section of the trail the previous
night so had a good track to ski on. Unfortunately, I noticed the snow plows were
occasionally spraying out onto the trail so the snow was dirty and gritty in places,
at least on the surface. But it was deep enough that I
did not scrape the pavement
even once. By the time I hit the 2nd cross street I noticed another pair of ski
tracks so I knew I was not the only skier. I even managed to catch up to the other skiers -- a couple who were commuting to work. They hadn't been on skis for years,
but could not drive on their steep snow-covered street so were giving it a try.
I wished them good luck and moved on. When I reached 148th Ave I switched from trail
to sidewalk. The snow was a little crusty but passable. It was even possible to
ski most of the way into the Fred Mayer's parking lot. But now I faced a dilemma
-- what to do with my skis? I had meant to bring a bike lock with me and jury-rig
a lockdown, but I'd forgotten. I ended up depending on the Salvation Army man to
watch them for me. On the way home my heavy pack (~30 pounds) slowed me down. I
stopped to rest periodically. At one stop I noticed a hawk scaring multiple pigeons
off a light pole. By the time I got home I
felt like I'd gotten a real workout. |
Sorry, no pics! | |
| 12/18/08 -- Skiing my neighborhood -- It's rare when we get an extended winter blast in the lowlands. So it was great to have an opportunity to ski around my neighborhood. (I'd done it once before, but there was barely enough and it melted the next day.) I skied up a small hill on the sidewalk and up into the neighborhood. I passed through the neighborhood park leaving tracks for the folks to wonder about, and went over to Violet's friend's house where the kids were sledding. The street was rather steep and I was amazed that they were sledding on it, but after trying it myself I realized that it was not as scary as it seemed. The snow conditions were slow, so I tried skiing down it a few times, following the sledders as a safe distance. Eventually I tired of that and skied up to the school where I'd heard there was a "really good sledding hill." I skied through the playground and athletic fields as it got dark and came to a staircase up to the street. I took the skis off and walked up the stairs, then put them back on. The neighborhood was pretty ritzy and had apparently had a snowplow come take care of their road. But luckily it had snowed since then so the road conditions were perfect for skiing. It was so good that I even tried skate skiing in a few places. I found a really big hill that dipped down then up another hill, but it was steep enough and dark enough that I didn't try it. It was far enough away that it wasn't practical to take the kids sledding there. So I headed back to the house in the dark, enjoying my winter workout. | ||
LAST YEAR (Winter 2007 - 2008) -- Outings were few and far between last year. Read about it and see the pics on this page.
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