The past two weekends we’ve headed to the mountains for cross-country skiing. Last weekend our friend Sara joined us on a trip to Snoqualmie. We skied on an old railroad bed. The trail was flat and well groomed. The trail followed a beautiful lake and the weather was perfect.

View our Hyak Skiing photos

This weekend Zvonimir had Monday off for the MLK holiday so we planned a weekend of activities. We headed back to Lake Easton on Sunday for more cross country skiing. The weather on the pass was cloudy and snow was falling. However, a few miles down the road, the clouds lifted and it was a beautiful day. I was excited to be back at Lake Easton because I was eager to try the hills again. The snow was pretty icy which made it a little more difficult for me. I did better than previously on the hills but still spent the majority of time on the ground!

On Monday, we drove to Mount Baker, an active volcano and one of the snowiest places in the world. Mount Baker is a few hours north, near the Canadian border. We skied for nearly two hours. The snow was powdery and this was our favorite trail yet. We found a big hill and I practiced over and over again until I finally conquored the hill. I still fell plenty of times but I’m starting to feel a little more comfortable on skis.

View our Lake Easton and Mount Baker photos

Posted in Activities, Cross country skiing, Outdoor activities 86 Comments »

A few years ago we took a trip to Lake Tahoe in California and visited the Royal Gorge Resort, the largest cross country skiing resort in North America. Z grew up on skis and had been cross country skiing several times before but this was the first time I had EVER been on skis….

It was great exercise and the scenery was amazing. Even though I spent most of the day on the ground and every muscle ached the following day, we had a lot of fun and wanted to go cross country skiing again.

We were excited to find that the Seattle area has several downhill skiing resorts and many cross country paths. We recently bought our own cross country skis and had been looking forward to breaking them in!

Yesterday it was rainy and dreary at our house so we decided to drive to the mountains to the cross country trails. We reached the mountains in just over an hour and found several feet of snow. (A bonus of living in Seattle – you’re close enough to enjoy the snow but don’t have to live with it daily!).

The cross country paths are groomed with a machine that makes little “lanes” in the snow. This is ideal for beginners like me, as the lanes keep your legs from going in opposite directions. This works most of the time, but there are still times when my legs just won’t cooperate!!

Yesterday I practiced stopping on hills… Zvonimir said my “swan dive” face plant would have been a great video clip to add to our site. I’m kind of happy he didn’t catch that on camera!! I did pretty well considering yesterday was only my second time on skis. I managed to keep my falls to less than double digits and only ended up with one large bruise! Hopefully at some point I’ll learn to stop without throwing myself on the ground…

View our Cross Country Skiing photos.

Posted in Activities, Cross country skiing, Outdoor activities 93 Comments »