over the hills we go

I had this plan. I knew I had to be sneaky and cautious on how I executed it for it to work. I knew it would be exhausting and have a little bit of suffering. I thought it would be a good idea to make other's suffer. I played it out real good!!!! Actually now that I think about it everyone volunteered before I even finished my spiel. Maybe it was me that got played???

Anyways, I had a long climbing session scheduled for the day. I could play on the trainer going up and down with the wattage and then attempt to stab myself with a seat post, I tried to figure out where I could ski for 3 plus hours with enough hills to satisfy my coach and myself. The skiing was a close thought but then I concerned myself that shake legs going up the hill meant shaky legs going back down. OR!!! I can go and try my new toys in Copeland forest. Of course the last one one and we a few gently persuasive words I had 4 others joining me.


My new kicks!! MSR Denali's, there are not many snowshoes out there that you can get optional equipment but these have a long list of add ons. I skipped the optional heated foot beds and navigation but did pick up the 8 inch fins. I didn't need them for today's adventure but when Mother Nature hammers us again with the deep white stuff I 'll have all the float you will ever need.

After a nice easy warm up the we should go left happened and the tease of a slight slope started to change to more of a wall appearance. It didn't take long to get warmed up and more than one of us started stripping of layers.


This was the start of many climbs and for the next 3 hours we were pretty much going up or down. Death march Liz was unavailable for the hike, I'm not sure what is with the women in our group but they always seem to put the boys to shame. Krista, the newbie put the hurt on us with a cruel pace up the hills and then showed up both Andrew and I with her technical skills at crossing logs. She does kinda have a marathon running background which justifies why. I be we coast better than she does!!!

We made our way to The far side south side of Copeland and found ourselves at the top of Pine Ridge Ski club. It's for sale and we all started trying to guess how much and if we all put our pennies together if we could afford it. Of course someone had to go over the fence and out of bounds and it was of course one of the rebels from the Norco freeride team who will remain name less. I've heard they are a shady west coast bunch that don't play by the rules. The fence was taped!!!!


With a distance still to go back to the cars the conversation began to focus around food. Not sure who started it but I think every stomach was making noise at this point. There were a few concerns on whether we would make it back safely without killing off one of us for a mid hike snack. There was a straw pole and Jeremy lost, I think the pace picked up a little. Either to tire him out for less of a fight or to get back to the cars before we did what we didn't want to do.

3:15 equalled 4 tired cyclists, 1 tired dog and then Krista who probably would have been able to do the 3 hour snowshoe in 2 hours and still looked energetic. Got what I needed to be done for the day and spent the rest of it relaxing on the couch with a big plate of food. Great weekend of training, lets hope that flows into the work week.