Skiing before it gets too cold

It looks like a triple play of snow. We woke up Saturday to find that the two inches of snow ended up as six inches. While it meant I had to dig my way out to get to work (yes, it's starting), we needed it. The only snow left before then was crusty remnants left by shoveling and plowing. We got maybe 3 more inches yesterday, and today its windy and about 0F. More snow and more cold for tomorrow and our drive to Dan's audition in Bloomington.

Brownie and I have been working on our cross-country ski technique. I don't trust him yet to just run along with me while I ski. I think he's still liable to run off and get lost, or to pick a fight with another dog. So I hook him on a 15-foot leash, loop it around my belt, and hope for the best. That restricts us to relatively flat ski outings, as I found out that on big hills it ends up like the scene in The Grinch who Stole Christmas where the sleigh dog Max is flying behind the sled as it careens down the hill. The Raccoon River park is a good flat outing, a big circle around old gravel pits along the river.

Here Brownie peers into the woods.



Here I stand on the glacier side. The last glacial advance stopped here; the hills on the other side of the river are there because the glaciers stopped about where the river is.


We got a good hour of skiing in, and we both were ready for a good dinner.