I am probably a pretty lame x-c skier in the grand scheme of things. A couple hours this morning was enough for me. It was the first ski of the year and climbing the first [wimpy] hill damn near killed me. After that? I was okay and so were the other 5-6 hills. Go figger. But at the end of it I was done for the day. I wasn’t all that tired. Just wanted to do some other things today. Also the temperatures were in the 30s and with that blinding light from the UFO orb shown below, I knew the snow would get wet and sloppy this afternoon. Also crowded with people. On my morning ski, I encountered one person besides the GG.

I had other things to do? Yes, I did! Like snow-shoe out on the ice and visit with the residents of the seasonal shanty town. (The GG expressed a desire to walk across the lake to the liqwire store but I squelched that. Sounded too much like a Death March to me.) The ice on Houghton Lake is a foot thick! That is unusual for the end of December. It’s plenty thick enough to support a couple of measly little snow-shoers not to mention sno-mos, ATVs, and probably even trucks. I LOVE my new snow-shoes! I can even get them on and off without help!

Here’s a gratuitous shot of the Cfam Group Home just after I climbed back up onto land from the lake. There used to be a much more rustic cabin on this property. A few years after The Gumper died, a bunch of his children [reluctantly!] decided the old place was too hard to maintain so they knocked it down and built this loverly place and share it amicably. There are a lot of things I miss about the old place but I have to admit that I don’t particularly miss pumping water, throwing buckets of water down the toilet, or using a camping shower in the winter. (Well, actually I do kind of miss pumping water.)

Late afternoon UFO sun. I could’ve obsessed about getting a sunset pic but I am taaaarrrred in that loverly fuzzy kind of way where long-dormant muscles have been used and my boots are soaking wet and I decided I would just miss the sunset. I do love the shadows in this pic.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 28th, 2013 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.