S-day - Ski, Swim, Symphony

Ski, Swim, and Cribbage with a bread bowl

5 mile ski!

Five miles today!

I get to do awesome things sometimes

Like go skiing with my friends and their dogs.

Trip to Cascade Lake

This Monday, the next to last day of May, Heidi, Lisa and I went out towards Canyon thinking we would ski out to Signet Lakes. Well, that didn't happen, mostly because we couldn't find it. Too much snow, it covered up all the signs. No, seriously. It snowed intermittently while we were out there but it was also incredibly sunny for most of the time. I tried out the skis Mom had gotten my for my birthday, Rossingol BC65s. They were awesome. I was not. I totally forgot that I was wearing new boots and got some awesome (different sense of the word) blisters. I... also forgot sunscreen and sunglasses which resulted in not only a wicked burn but also a line of redness across my eyes that lasted for about four days. While my heels are still in agony, at least I no longer look like I've been smoking illegal substances.

Any way you cut it, a pretty fun afternoon.

Getting ready to go out

Me trying to get in the picture

We were skiing over some... well, watery areas

See the otter? No, well we did

Pretty trees

Trying to get a picture of all three of us

Skiing at Old Faithful

The second day at Old Faithful started off great. Heidi and I met Zac, our snowcoach driver and I got to ride the last of the four snow vehicles that they use here in the park. The Bombadier. We traveled up to the Continental Divide Trail. The trail was about 2.8 miles round trip. The trees were beautifully snow-covered and about half-way up there was an absolutely gorgeous view of Shoshone Lake. Too bad the view from the top was cloud covered and hidden behind trees. The way back down... well, the way back down...
Let me start here, I'm not sure if I'm bad at downhill because I don't like it or if I don't like downhill because I'm bad at it, but either way, downhill skiing is my winter arch-nemesis. So the Continental Divide trail joins up with the 4.8 mile Spring Creek trail. It has some pretty steep downhill areas. And some surprisingly straight up hills. And the snow has not been great this year which meant that when I fell (which I did a LOT (for those who care, I did fill in my holes and ski back over the trail to help make sure that no one else would suffer)), it was sometimes on some hard snow. And, this is sad to admit, but I face planted more than once (and no, Kendra, I was not drunk). I'm not sure where my hands were, but they were not breaking my falls. Which is why, when Heidi stopped and turned around about halfway up the Spring Creek trail, she paused when she saw this...(actually, this is after I grabbed some snow and wiped off the blood that was down to my nose.)
In actuality, it is a tiny, tiny cut. It was just a head wound that bled a little freely. I did get some fun from it though... I kept telling people that Heidi had knifed me with her ski pole. Most people assumed that it had been an accident, but they all believed me. Hee hee hee.
We had several river crossings. Most of them down a short hill with a turn. The only thing worse than a down hill is a down hill with a turn. Blergh. It threatened several times, but I never actually fell in to the creek. The last crossing was the most beautiful, for many reasons, including the scenery. And the proximity to the Lone Star Trail.Heidi and I did make it up to Lone Star Geyser but didn't see it go off (it added an extra 1.6 miles to our trip, but what did we care? We had finally made it to a groomed trail).
We made it back to the Old Faithful area in time to meet up with Allie. The estimated time of Grand going off was 6:00. Allie had been there since about 4:20. We got there about 4:45 and the geyser went off (Yay!) at about 5:30. We were all so excited. Just see those smiling faces!
We struggled back to the Lodge and had some appetizers with drinkies. Eventually, we made it back to the apartment but it was incredibly painful. I don't know how Heidi managed to go out skiing the next day. I hurt just about everywhere.
So, the moral of the story is, if people tell you that Spring Creek is a beautiful trail that is a nice, moderate ski, they are lying. They are lying through their lying teeth. It is hell on earth. And I wouldn't have missed it for the world.