First Skate Ski and a Hike in Girdwood

Brian skied on Saturday - no new snow and off and on a little combo rain-snow.  We tried diagonal but couldn't get the wax, so Judy went to buy yarn (somewhere along the way to moving we lost her skating poles, and she'd already been to yoga!) and Brian switched to skate skis.  An hour and a half later, he decided that was a pretty hilly course and the people here are in darned good shape!  Sunday we got up and ate pancakes (ala James Beard, spare no calories - sour cream and butter), went grocery shopping and drove to Girdwood, which is about 40 minutes away to hike or ski - it turned out to be hike, though we did see a few hardy souls skiing in and out - it looked painful, they hadn't had new snow either, and it was hard, crusty, and had been walked on - a lot. The hike was beautiful though - you'll have to trust us on that one - we had the camera, but discovered we hadn't put the memory card back in the last time we took pictures off for the computer.  We put our Katoolahs on about 1/2 way in, which helped a lot for footing - those are mini-spikes that slip over your boots - very popular here and with good reason - they get a lot of icy conditions, and they don't use salt on sidewalks or roads.  The Winner Creek Trail, where we hiked today, begins at the Alyeska Hotel Resort, a downhill ski resort, and continues about 2.5 miles til you get to a hand tram that can take you over a creek -- we didn't go across, but the trail that continues on was a part of the old Iditarod trail, before it was moved to its more norther location now - it begins in Anchorage and is quite the event we hear - we'll find out this year!  We're reading about Fur Rendezvous, which begins at the end of February and includes the Iditarod and the Anchorage Tour-a-thon, which Brian is thinking of registering for - they already have 1,000 registrants for this ski race in March!  http://www.anchorage.net/1259.cfm (look up Anchorage Fur Rendezvous).  Back to work tomorrow!  We'll try and get pictures next time, and snow is predicted for the next two days!