Diminishing daylight, and colder temps tend to keep us indoors - which, other than some good-hearted family competition playing Wii Sports (older video game, but still a good one), tends to keep us too sedentary. So, we joined the local ski club, and the boys will be skiing with the junior nordics group this Winter (while I ski alongside them to get some exercise of my own).
Problem is, I have never cross-country skied before, so after we made the financial plunge to gear up, I spent the day on a nearby easy trail to figure it out during a ~10 km ski. Here's a group of back-country skiers heading out farther on the trail ahead of me on their overnight trip.
The view was magnificent from Archangel Road. I stuck to classical skiing, on a well-groomed trail, but still did my best Adrian Solano impression most of the trip.
Most people were skate skiing, and making much better time than me, but it'll be a while before I can do anything other than diagonal technique on a groomed trail.
Small amount of fresh snow, and recent grooming, made for a fast trail. Maybe not the best conditions for a first time - I think a slower track would have felt a little better for me, but I eventually kinda got the hang of it.
I went out early enough to avoid the crowd. Lots of people were showing up as I left, but during my couple of hours on the trail, I had it mostly to myself. Interesting demographic of cross country skiers - about 80% women, I was one of only a few guys on the trail. Luckily, others were sympathetic and were happy to give me some pointers when needed.
Took two falls. One while venturing outside of my "safe" diagonal and double pole techniques and into a short attempt at kick double pole technique (worked for a few minutes, then lost my balance on a kick and down I went). Second fall was due to the distraction of a passing dog off the leash causing a bit of a commotion - should have ignored the dog. It was a great time, out on a beautiful trail in Hatcher Pass on my own for most of the day. There are lessons available, and now that I have some small amount of experience, I'll take a few lessons before the boys start skiing after Christmas so I can go with them and help out with the junior nordics, while getting in some much-needed outdoor exercise.
The freeze up makes it easier to travel the Hay Flats below our house. So I took a trip down to the flats a couple weeks ago to retrieve a pesky plastic bag that had become visible after last years' thaw, but was too wet in the marshy flats to retrieve it until recently. Here's a picture back up towards the house from down on the flats.
Found this picture recently, from 8 years ago. The boys were much smaller (wouldn't want to try to put Grayson on my back today!). But it provides a good comparison of the same view from 8 years ago, during a Winter thaw similar to what we're experiencing this month (thus the lack of snow in both pictures).
Our house is on the right side of the picture, and a bald eagle sits in a tree on the left side of the picture at the top of the bluff (might need to zoom in to see the eagle).
The National Historic Iditarod Trail, where it passes the Hay Flats just below the bluff from our house. This trail started in Seward on the Kenai Peninsula where supplies were offloaded beginning in the early 1900's, and moved via dog sled during the gold rush North across the Hay Flats where we live, and then West to the Iditarod gold mine, before eventually reaching Nome. No dog sled teams use it today, but it is heavily traveled by moose and the occasional skiers or snow machines when the snow is deep enough. Last week we saw a family ice skating nearby, as a recent windstorm had scraped off the snow down to the ice.
This is the perpetrator. A white plastic bag that wasn't noticeable last March when I arrived in Wasilla, but was a thorn in my side all Summer after the thaw when it was too wet on the marshy flats to retrieve it. I had to wait until this Winter's freeze to get down on the flats and remove the eyesore.
Panoramic of the Hay Flats, from the historic trail (if you zoom in you can see Dino standing on the trail on the left side).
Here's another 8-year comparison. Top picture above is of Landon and Grayson shoveling the driveway earlier this year, and the bottom picture above is of Pappy getting some "supposed" help from 2.5 year old Grayson shoveling snow back in February 2010.
A unique Alaskan reserved parking sign, used earlier this month when I presided over a retirement of one of my Navy folks here at Alaskan Command. It's a snow shoe converted to a parking sign.
First (of many) orthodontic trip for the boys. Grayson escaped any procedures being scheduled (for now), but Landon will be in the chair after New Year 's Day to get a mouth full of metal installed. Not looking forward to that.
Presents are starting to find their way under the tree.
While looking through old blogs, I found these three pictures below from Christmas Day 2009. Wow, we had a lot more snow then. Sad. Maybe we'll see some significant snow fall before the 25th - but we're running out of time!
No comments:
Post a Comment