camblog: In the snow for the Holidays

Nothing like escaping the rain and coming over to Wenatchee to the snow. Yes its sketchier if you have to drive in a blizzard, and snow and ice on the ground is trickier than wet pavement, but there some things you can only do in snow. Like skiing or snow-shoeing.
We came over on Friday and had a smooth drive with no rain or snow. I was pretty wiped out from the drive so I just hit the couch for the most part. Saturday the idea was for me to head over the Leavenworth and ski a bit and then be me by Sarah and Marieka for the Chariot-on-skis maiden voyage. After the drive in the snow though, we decided I would be solo though since it was snowing and not looking like it was going to clear up soon. I did a big loop of the Fish Hatchery and the snow was pretty thickly piled on top of the groomed track, not making it the fastest conditions. Then I attached the Chariot after getting it all set up, which only takes about 5 minutes: skis & bars with waist attachment.
I headed out for another big loop and I could really feel the weight and mass back there. I was still skiing faster than some other skaters, but it was hard work. At the end of the lap I was ready to take the thing off and ski freely!
During these first two laps it was snowing light to heavy, and on the final lap it cleared up and I was able to truly appreciated the smooth gliding sensation that is skate skiing. The drive home was also way smoother than the way out as the late afternoon sun was shining under the light clover.
My legs really felt the efforts of the first outing and I'm sure the Chariot pulling added to the fatigue.
The next day was more or less a rest day, though we did do a husband/wife snowshoe from the athletic club that was 35 min. uphill and 25 min. downhill on a nice narrow trail that is marked for hiking AND, get this, biking. Nice to see there is no anti-cycling sentiment over here in the land of individual rights.
It snowed all day long on Saturday so it was a good thing we didn't try to skate since I already mentioned that skating on a heavy track is not ideal.
We did head out on Sunday though, and it seems the weather forecast came 24 hours early, giving us the Xmas day weather on Xmas eve. Yeah! Light clouds and sun, and no snow. It was a bit heavy anyway since the groomer only made one pass and all that snow will take a few days to get really packed and set and fast. I strapped the Chariot on and we all did a short loop, and Marieka was out like a light. Then Sarah took over and I cruised along sans poles. Then we split up, and Sarah tackled another short loop loaded, I went out for two big loops.
My arms are pretty worked today, as well as my pecs and shoulders from double-poling in the tracks and doing V2 technique at high reps on the fairly flat terrain. It doesn't blow your arms out like V2 alternate can where you are really weighting down and powering on your poles, but the high reps certainly produce fatigue in their own way. I'd like to see which is actually the faster technique.
Today we shared gifts after Larry made us all some nice berry waffles. I'm stoked to have received some nice new slippers as mine were really kicked, and these are practically like sport clogs, though fleecy. Sarah got me the new Reggae book I checked out at my school's library: The Reggae Scrapbook.

The book has some wild features like Peter Tosh's death report recreated in faux aged paper, real show flyers lightly glued to the pages that have been autographed by the artists, and other items placed in little envelopes throughout the book. There's also a DVD with interviews of artists that were done over the last few decades by the author with essential artists. This book now presages my previous favorite Reggae book by Chris Salewicz: Reggae Explosion.