Skiing in -3

OK so it wasn't really minus three it just makes me sounds tougher than I really am. :) It was more like 4 degrees above zero. And it was gorgeous. Little drops of snowflakes frosting the bits of hair that stuck out and dancing on my nose. Tall evergreens rose up on either side and were covered with neat and tidy piles of fluffy white snow. I was grateful that I met B at the gas station for the ride to the trail. The sign was matted with snow and the road in was only visible to a trained eye. It was a still and quiet morning. No moose in sight. No other skier zooming past. Just a grey sky and twinkling snowflakes. Most of the beginning was spent leaning on B for help getting my skis clipped onto my boots.

As the two novices pushed and gripped the fresh snow we both felt like the blind leading the blind. Neither of us having had much experience out on the trails before let alone on skis. Thankfully B had come out on Tuesday and knew the trail as well as anyone having done it once before could. The terrain proved to be rather mild in nature with only two "daunting" hills. I felt the butterflies in my stomach start to flutter. I yelled down to B who had just taken a plunge: "this is worse than going on a roller coaster, I'd much rather NOT be in control right about now."

Well...

I fell flat on my arse. I can' remember if it was a graceful swan dive or a full throttle bomb explosion.

Either way I was OK looking like yup..a goon ball.

There was a point of no return on that hill where mother nature, my ability to coordinate two wooden sticks, stay in the grooves all came colliding together and there I was on my arse.

After recovering from that tumultuous kerfluflle we glided onward through soft snowy wonderland.

I kept thinking to myself, "how amazing is it that it's 10:00 a.m. on a Thursday and here I am out cross country skiing and not sitting behind a desk?"

OK I'm going to end this on a positive note.

I'm an asthmatic. I don't fare well moving. Let alone moving while attached to wooden poles in Alaska cold.

That's not the positive note...in case you were wondering.

I made it through that loop twice. With very little pausing.

I also went down that darn hill again....

and didn't crash. It was one of those goofy super proud moments of my life.

I cheated and veered off the tracks and just let mother nature do her thang and I made it down without tumbling like a weed.

It was amazing.