Every year Pete and I do something outdoorsy on what I call Stupor Bowl Funday because we know that most other people will be inside, glued to the television, eating junk food, and watching an act of sanctioned violence. More power to them; this means they are not where I want to be, which is out on the trails.

It was snowing lightly when we got up. A few hours later it was coming down heavier and beginning to accumulate. Pete said that he heard on the weather radio that the snow would turn to a rain/snow mix later in the day, to which I replied that we should get our tired, fat, lazy asses out there and go for a ski.

And that’s exactly what we did. We skied the entire Moose Range/Grizzly Camp Loop; this took us about three hours. Others who had the same idea that we did had already been out – the lot mainly consisted of a couple of skiers and a few bicyclists.

The conditions seemed to me to be better for skiing than bicycling, soft snow on top of hard packed trail. Conditions weren’t as ideal as they were last year, on that memorable day in which I was the first one out, breaking trail, but they were still pretty good.

We ran into two guys skiing with two dogs, a fellow ski jouring with two dogs, our friend Julie and her two dogs, and a lone woman, I’d say in her late 50s or early 60s. Everyone was talkative except for the lone woman. She didn’t say anything when I made idle chit-chat; this was her loss. I’m always looking for someone to recreate with.

I had an easier time of it skiing because I’m now in pretty good shape from strength training. I also focused on externals rather than internals. I looked up hills when herring boning, and looked off to the distance when going downhill. Both were a lot easier. I felt much more supple going up, and more confident going down. I’m sure that most people do what I did today automatically. I would like to have figured this out thirty years ago, but far better now than ten years into the future.

I was fairly tired when I got home, and I really didn’t want to head back outside. However, I felt as though I had no choice, so I made the best of it. I fed the horses and picked up poop – that is what I could find. Then I gave Tinni a snow removal workover before taking him out on a Stupor Bowl Sunday walk. And together we did the review of the hood. The road had not yet been plowed and no one was out plowing. The general consensus must be that, like Pete, they’ll get to it when the snow storm is over in the morning.

The guy who lives in the weather radio repeatedly used the word snow in giving the weather forecast, so this may slow things further around here. I hope so. Once the game is over the watchers will again be out tearing up the trails.

Next: 35. 2/4/19: Post-Storm Insight