Finally it warms up!

As the temperature climbed up into the single digits, then the teens and finally -- BALMY -- the twenties, we ice skated on the lagoon and skied again.  After a few inches of fresh snow on Friday, we skied for a couple of hours on the Coastal Trail, one of the first times that we had classical skied in a while.  On Sunday after our Meet Up group canceled a cross-country ski to the Portage Glacier due to high winds forecast south of here, we re-grouped and took our off-trail skis to the Eagle River Valley.  We started out on the Dew Mound Trail, and it was pretty good though pretty scant cover.  As we continued up, not knowing the route, we got higher and rockier, and we ended up taking our skis off and carrying them.  It was slick underneath the little bit of snow, pure ice in spots, and especially difficult hiking in ski boots!  We felt like we'd had a trashing by the time we hiked and then were able to ski again - out just under 4 hours.  It was actually only about 8 degrees when we started, as it had cooled more than forecast overnight.  We finished with an hour lecture on volcanoes -- the Eagle River Nature Center offers a lot of neat talks on Sunday afternoons!  This picture of Brian will give you an idea of just how gorgeous it is in the Eagle River Valley.