Wednesday, February 23, 2011

AWWWWWW

It turned into one of those days, one of those days where conditions were perfect. Ok not perfect but 98.4 percent perfect. It was one of those rare times that I wish we had just a little bit more snow. Of course I would be very picky on where that snow went. The previous weekend's hurricane like winds did do something spectacular, they cleared the snow off Georgian Bay. In many attempts to get a big endurance day out on the bay have been attempted the conditions have just not been right all winter. Until now. Well almost.

The monster and I did the 2 minute stroll from my place down to the channel, skate skis in hand. Once I got there I wondered if I brought the right tool for the job. Skates could have almost been used, everything off the snowmobile track was mirror smooth, not great for skiing, not great for any real type of movement unless you had sharp metal attached to your feet. The snowmobile track though was chewed up just enough for some traction, the glide was, well, amazing. There were small patches of blown snow that made things even better,. Plan A.

As the monster and I made our way past the drunken winter village, like a lot of trailer parks during tornado's there were a few homes missing from the wind, I could see my hopeful destination. A loop around the island was the plan, it's a big island. As we got closer the snow patches got slimmer in the open bay. That didn't stop us, the 2 foot high wall of ice did in the distance. A big pressure crack in our patch, some updates from a drunken local that it happened this morning. Not safe at this time. Time to turn around for plan B.


Along the bay shoreline the snow was perfect. It was almost like skiing on the finest beach sand on some tropical island. With the sun at full force it was amazing. Perfect traction, amazing glide, minimal effort, no hills. Of course with the added traction Molly picked up her pace also. Up and down the bay a couple times before making our way back to the channel skating rink. An hour and a half of bay time had me smiling.

This and the past weekends adventure made the next part even harder. I thought that the race would help fuel me until the melt for times on the trainer. Didn't help, made it worse, I was tempted to close the blind in the padded room, ignorance is bliss and attempting to not know that it was sunny outside would help. Of course I didn't, I put my head into it and did what needed to be done. It won't be long now that sitting at the bottom of the hill recovering doesn't include freezing to death. I'm not a hill fan to start with unless it means descending but standing around in the cold makes the unenjoyable now torture. Regardless of the boredom, total play time was just over 2.5 hours. Legs are beginning to feel better. Time to trash them again.

The sun is up, what will it bring today? The weekend is forecasting just enough snow to make for pristine ice travel. Today, tomorrow, the next the week is looking good.

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