A Long Drive and a Nice Ski

I am in the middle of a road trip to Tacoma for a college visit for my youngest daughter. The first stop (after an all night 1,100 mile drive), is Bozeman, Montana. Bozeman is sort of a second home seeing as how my son, sister and mother live here. My daughter Linnea has borrowed us her brand new Subaru Forester for the trip, and my contribution, (in addition to agreeing not to trash her new car) was suppose to be a nice Thule rack system, sort of a self-serving gift, because it would have allowed us to take bikes and skis for the trip. WELL to make a long story short Thule's online sales delivery system leaves a lot to be desired and the equipment did not arrive on time so we had to go ski-less and bike-less.

We got to Bozeman at about 5:30 am. After a short nap and attending my niece's Basketball game, Saturday afternoon my Brother-in-law decided that we should go skiing. So, I borrowed back the ski boots that I borrowed to my son and I borrowed my sister's skiis. The snow in Bozeman looked like it was barely skiiable, the south slopes were more-or-less bare and the snow on the ground in town was icy, but being always interested in an adventure I thought it would be a great idea.

We went up Hylite Canyon south of town and found a surprisingly good place to ski on the east slope of the valley. The snow was good at the start and got to be better the higher we climbed. It was not a long ski, (we didn't get started till about 3:00 pm) but it was one of those unexpected gifts. Good snow where I thought there would be none, skiing when I was not planning on it, and the company of my brother-in-law, which is always good.

In terms of exercise it was the kind of backcountry skiing that just is not possible in the Midwest, a long climb, and then a nice downhill back. Low to Medium intensity for about an hour on the way up then easy back down for 30 minutes or so. My Workout file: Skiing 2/21/09