Cross-Country Skiing (Classic) 4:00:00 [3] 8.5 mi (28:14 / mi)
shoes: Rossignol Backcountry Skis
Skiing with Sam and Presto in Donner Memorial State Park! We decided to check out Cold Spring Canyon today, which Sam had read was a pretty gentle ascent. We made sure to bring plenty of food because running out of food in Donner Memorial State Park on a winter excursion seems particularly terrifying...
I got to try out my new backcountry skis, and they are awesome! They're a lot shorter than my old skis, which makes maneuverability easier and the metal edges really improve my ability to change direction. Between the new skis and the new snow, life was quite good :-). The sun was out today and the forest was gorgeous with feet and feet of snow covering everything. Just as we were starting a snowcat headed out along the canyon to do a sort of vague grooming of the path most of the way to Lost Trail Lodge. This was extremely lucky for us because even with skis on, when breaking trail the snow was about mid-thigh. Skiing along the snowcat trail was pretty great, and it also made life easy for Presto.
The snowcat groomed to the railroad tracks. We noticed some ski tracks along the railroad tracks, so we followed those a little ways until they went into the forest. The trail through the forest was amazing! It was packed enough that skiing was easy for us and walking was easy for Presto, but pretty narrow, which made everything a bit more magical. We made it to Lost Trail Lodge a bit before our turn around time and met a huge fluffy white dog hanging out in the snow. The dog wanted to come with us as we continued on, and it took a while to convince it to stay by the lodge. We didn't get too far beyond the lodge before our turn around time, and the way back was just as awesome as the way in had been. Amazing day!
Stretching 10:00 [3]
Normal stretching back home. We didn't have to put chains on today, but getting back still took forever...
My glutes are crazy sore from skating on Sunday, but otherwise my legs are going ok. My right shoulder (the sore one) seems more or less unchanged from last week, which seems like a win all things considered. My left arm/shoulder had to take up a lot of the poling slack this weekend and is now sore (but in a healthier-feeling way).