The Glide

I’m starting to get the hang of skiing. As I watched the snow fall all day Friday at work my excitement grew. I had been hoping for one more good snowfall this season so I could get just a little more skiing in.

Friday night we had a dinner party with neighbors, then after that (around 12:30 am) I headed over to the Arboretum for about 20 minutes of skiing. The sledding hill was packed with (fairly uncooperative) people, most of which appeared to be college students. The snow was a little bit too powdery, but it was a good time nonetheless.

Saturday was supposed to be the big day. I ended up heading out to Allerton Schroth trail at about 2 pm. Unfortunately, much of the snow had melted (though it was still below freezing), and it was very spotty. That is, there was lots of bare ground that I had to try to avoid. So it was good, but not great. I thought the chances for good snow on Sunday were pretty slim.

Fortunately, I was proven wrong. The snow was actually fantastic. I again went over to the Arboretum. The snow was just a little icy, but not too much, and it was less spotty than it had been at Allerton on Saturday. In fact, I was skiing so well that I deviated from my original plan of doing a couple of loops at the Arboretum and just kept heading farther and farther out. There is some wooded area just across Windsor road. When I got to Windsor I took the skis off, ran across the road, put the skis back on, and kept right on going. The snow in this area was packed down and frozen just enough that I was able to glide nearly effortlessly along. After I skied in that wooded area for a while I crossed Race street and skied around at Meadowbrook park. I was now a few miles from home.

It felt so hot Sunday that I took my hat off. Then I took my gloves off (yes, skiing without gloves… it was weird). Then I had to roll up my sleeves. I had the foresight to bring a water bottle with me. Just when I reached to the back of my waist pack to get it the lid popped off and all my water spilled onto the snow. Crap. I guess it was time to head home soon anyway.

After lunch, I went back out for a 40 mile bike ride, which was somewhat enjoyable, though fairly boring. Everything looked like this:

You couldn’t really tell where the ground ended and the sky began.