I’ve had some pretty amazing adventures the last couple of Saturdays. Yesterday I got up at 5:30 am and we took advantage of all the snow the last couple of days to do a final, blowout, snowshoeing trip. We went up to the Big Spring area and climbed up a ridge that eventually winds its way into Cascade Mountain. We started at 5800 feet and quit at 8800 feet after about 3 miles. It was a steep climb! Theo of course adored it too.
We saw a white bunny rabbit, very pretty. The dogs somehow did not notice it. It was only 10 feet away before scampering off. I guess the white on white made it hard for them to see. Not sure why they didn’t smell it. Anyway, we quit when we got to a place that looked kind of dicey: very steep and open on both sides. It took us 4 hours to get up and back. The views were spectacular. The snow was sparkly and soft and deep. Striding down through deep snow is a sensation like floating in water. So much fun! Theo's long hair accumulates balls of snow; it's hilarious!
Then last Saturday Charlie and I were in St. George with the Bike Shop boys and girls. We went down Friday morning and rode the racetrack and rode most of the way up Zen. First bike ride of the year. It was fantastic. We probably rode a total of a thousand feet and several miles. The
next day we rode Gooseberry Mesa. It is a serious butt-kicking ride. It doesn’t have a lot of up
and down but is just incredibly technical and difficult. Lots of quick ups and downs and blind turns, and powering around corners and over rocks. Last year I did terribly. I fell several times and got really beat up mentally and physically. This year I did a ton better. Last year some things simply looked unclimbable.
This year, only 2 things seemed
unclimbable. I tried everything else. I did not always get up everything, but I tried! And I got up a whole bunch of stuff that I never would have done last year.
It’s good to take up new sports late in life. Because one gets better at them for a while even though one gets physically less able each year. Kind of fun to produce the illusion of getting younger!
