Winter(?) Wanderings

GORGEOUS SKI TODAY!

Luck would have it that I had to be up early on a Saturday to work for a few hours. I prepared my ski gear and lit out as soon as our "meeting" was over.

The only way to get a decent Nordic ski around here is to beat the snow players to the trails.

I went up to Table Mountain and took the fire road. It was awesome - not a soul in sight. I let Teyla run and tire herself out in the deep drifts of snow.

Breaking snow is a bitch, though. The entire time, I think of the ski back! I know the downhill parts will be sooo fun and the uphill parts won't be nearly as tough. And in fact, it was all I dreamed it would be. Until about a quarter mile back I met two ladies who were snow shoeing. Teyla actually played with their dogs for a moment, and was unusually cordial. We exchanged quick hellos and nice weathers, and then I realized they had killed my tracks. UGH!

So my "fun" ski back was short lived. The next mile I spent trying to find tracks within snow shoe tracks, then Teyla walking behind me stepping on my skis, and having some issues with snow sticking to the tail of the ski. The last issue - well I am taking them to REI this weekend to get them tuned. They are supposedly "wax" free nordic skis, but that's crap LOL. With Teyla, if I kick up my skis for a while she backs off enough (but that's not easy to do in Cross country skis.)

The other issue - with all the STUPID warnings they put on products, they ought to put a notice about NOT STEPPING IN SKI TRACKS. I was always told it was "trail etiquette" not to snow shoe in ski tracks; I always abide by that, whether I have skis or shoes. For some reason, I would think people with that kind of gear would ALSO be aware of such etiquette.

In all fairness, it wasn't too debilitating, just took a lot of the fun out of my straight spots and downhill sprints.

In Sequoia, I broke snow for several miles and I swear the exact same thing happened. Two ladies in snow shoes hosed up my tracks. However - that particular time it caused me to take much longer to get back, and I arrived *just* before dark.

The wonderful thing about breaking snow is the calorie burn!!

Here's the way back, on runkeeper

Here some pics