Fun In The Snow

It was as about as perfect as you could get for XC skiing on Sunday. Little to no wind, temps in the 20's, lots of powdery snow, and plenty of time on my hands.

With three days of sitting indoors waiting out the sub-zero bubble of air that had us in its grasp, I felt like a jailbird. Free baby, free!

I decided to hit up the Green Belt, since hardly anybody uses that area for XC skiing. I was right too, it looked like maybe only two or three other folks had ever been out there since the last big snow storm.



Cross country skiing makes three miles of trail seem like ten, at least from my bicycling mind's point of view. Little short chutes like the one pictured here take awhile longer to traverse on skis. On a bicycle, it's gone in an instant.

A lot of snow that was puffy meant that I sunk in pretty far in most places, but some stretches were pretty drifted in, like this one, and I didn't sink down quite so far.







I could have maybe used some gaiters, and wider skis today too. Here's a place where I cut in pretty deeply into the snow that was piled high out in the woods.

It was quiet, with a bit of snow flurries, and not a sound to be heard but the whoosh-whoosh of my ski-shuffle as I went along. Actually, I was pretty surprised by how well and how fast I went. It was my first time out this winter, and I only got out on the skis twice last year. (I think!)






The trail I was on passes under the old railroad bridge that was converted into a bike path. I stopped for a breather and fired off some shots with the camera. This one turned out fair, I thought. Kind of a geometrical maze of sorts. I am starting to like the camera thing. I spent a fair amount of time researching choices again, but I think I'm pretty sold on a Panasonic DMC LX 3.

It is waaaay more camera than I have the talent for, but its compact size, excellent lens, and low light sensitivity should prove to be an asset in my web work.



But enough about cameras. I just was super stoked to be out and getting some exercise. Happy that it felt warm, and that the wind wasn't howling anymore. (Saturday.....what was up with that!) It was fun to ski and do it as well as I've probably ever done it, albeit with plenty of rest stops! Gotta work on the engine!

I hope your weekend went well too!