Great Weekend

Yesterday was gloomy and temps continue to hover around 30. Freezing fog frosts the trees at elevations slightly higher than we are. The Nordic Club was having a learn to ski day, and we were signed up to help, so off we went to meet the gang at Pocket Creek. It was so icy we went higher to brave the crowds at Tea Cup, which has groomed trails. It was still icy, but as the sun warmed up the snow, it became tolerable. The sky was SO blue and clear. Mt. Hood was in our faces all day. What a gorgeous day above the fog zone.

My new back country skis and boots were all that I hoped they'd be. The only time I fell was when I was standing on the side of the trail, waiting for people to go ahead of me so I could 'sweep' the group. It was icy and the skis decided they didn't want to stay put. We did did some skills practice on the flats, had a snack then a photo session. Jan and I took some of the more confident skiers on a loop ski while Skip and Lloyd worked on more skills with the others. We headed off trail a bit and found some rabbit tracks in the sparkly snow.

The freezing fog created huge ice crystals, it was like skiing on tiny broken shards of glass when we went off the groomed trail. The picture doesn't do it justice, but you can see how big the pieces are. That's my ski at the top of the picture, for scale of some sort.

We managed to lose Fred, but found him again by the end of the afternoon, none the worse for wear. A nice cold draft at Elliot Glacier Public House rounded out the day. Fred forgot all about being left behind.

Today I poured at Wind River Cellars tasting room. It was just me, the cats and Newman (the black lab) until about 3 pm, when it got constantly busy until quitting time (5). I put the football game on in the back room but it was as cold as Pittsburg back there, so I only went to check the score...Another wonderful weekend in Paradise.