Last week we went cross-country skiing for the first time this winter. It was sunny and cold and awesome. We went to the Zealand Valley, which has a network of cross-country and snowmobile trails (not the same trails, thank goodness, because snowmobile tracks are terrible to ski in). The Flatiron trail is a ~2 mile loop (and is indeed very flat). It spends some time winding through woods, some time wandering next to the river, and opens onto big fields (or maybe frozen-over marshland? It's hard to tell under 4 feet of snow).
Some of the open spaces were alot bigger than they seemed at first. Fortunately, it was not too windy out there, even though it was only 13°F. After our skiing, we went over to a buried picnic table and literally dug a hole down to the bench so we could sit and have some hot tea (yeah, thermos!). My pants froze to the bench.
Today, 6 days later, it is 46°F, and raining. What is up with that, weather? It is hard to get a good night's sleep when the rain keeps making snow and ice fall off the roof in huge chunks all night long. Hhmph.
