Sunday, February 13, 2011

Should be Skiing

We've been having a great snow year up here in Northern Vermont.  The temperature has not gone above freezing in over a month and the snow is both deep and excellent, with a light, fluffy body on a dense base.  We had our coldest temps in  many years a couple weeks ago, dipping to -20 F, but it didn't last long.  There have been many morning, though, with the temp hovering around 10 degrees, which is about the lower limit of what I'm willing to ride.  It's early February and I have just tipped 500 miles for the year.  Not very impressive.  I did venture out when it was around zero one day, but it's tough to get past the nasty bite the air puts on you without resorting to face masks and the like and I find these accessories obnoxious and uncomfortable.  I snapped the pic above early Friday morning on my ride into work.  I had pulled over on the steep descent on my dirt road to let a couple cars get by, as a layer of snow over the frozen ruts was making the descent dicey, as it usually does.  The temp was 10 degrees when I left, but it was probably colder than that at this spot.

I confess to having let this great snow slip by, as I haven't been out on the skis at all this winter.  It's hard to get motivated when Jeanne hasn't been able to join me as she is recovering from some foot surgery and the dog is too arthritic to go bounding through the woods any more.  I just find excuses to do other things, like cut wood or move snow around on my days off.  This may change today, though, as we've made a ski date for Sunday afternoon.

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