Old and New

One very busy day last week... Mike and I took the Subaru to a shop in town to have my studded snow tires switched out for my summer tires.  While we were waiting, we took a little drive in his truck down to Emerald Bay (a MUST see location for anyone who visits).  We've been there several times, but on this particular day we decided to hike through the campgrounds, and took a short but steep hike down a trail that led to the beautiful waters of Emerald Bay.

This place gets very crowded with people and boats in the summer so it was amazing to have the entire place to ourselves on such a beautiful day!

It was a beautiful spot for a picnic lunch.  

After our lunch break, we headed back up the steep trails.  

Here is the view of Emerald Bay from the campground.  

As SOON as we took the studded snow tires off the Subaru, the weather changed from mid to upper 60's and SUNSHINE to 20-30 degrees temperatures and SNOW.  Go figure.  

So a few days ago we got a decent little snow storm... maybe 2-5 inches at our house and probably a few more inches in higher elevations.  Heavenly Ski Resort has already closed for the season (they closed last weekend), but that didn't stop us from enjoying the snow.  So yesterday when I got off work, we slapped the skins on our skis and headed out the door.  

It was so convenient to drive just .5 mile down the street and park at Boulder Lodge (one of Heavenly's ski lodges).  We grabbed our skis out of the bed of the truck, put the jacket on the dog, and began our climb.  

It was a steep FUN climb.  We skinned up 3 ski runs... passed 3 chair lifts... and finally made it to the top of Olympic Express chair lift in just under 3 hours.  It was a total climb of approximately 2300 vertical feet.  It was also 28 degrees out and snowing off and on.  

Lake Tahoe is down there somewhere... behind the cloud of snow coming toward us. 

The wonderful thing about skinning is: even when it's below freezing outside, the slow and steady nature of the climb keeps your heart rate up.  Believe me, you will stay warm when you are skinning.  The bad part is: when the sun comes out you get HOT and have to strip some layers of clothing.  And on this day, since the snow was "off and on," we had to stop frequently to strip off layers and then put them back on.  

After 3 hours and 2,000 calories burned, we made it to the top... took our skins off... and got ready for the 5 minute ski down.  It's really depressing that it takes SO long to get to the top, and the ride down is so quick... so let's not talk about that any longer.  

Zater and his snow beard.  

Z had icicles hanging off his whiskers... but he was still panting from his workout. 

Post skinning routine includes: 

1) soaking our "soon-to-be-sore" muscles in the hot tub

2)splitting a LARGE cheese pizza (and finishing every. single. slice)

3)relaxing on the couch until bedtime.  

We are VERY good at the post-skinning routine.  

Until next time...