Winter in Anchorage this year (counted as when we start cross-country skiing!) started the first week in November, and we MAY have stopped skiing now - the next week will determine that. It has been a beautiful, snowy winter, the best winter we've had in the 11 winters that we've been here!
Pandemic guidelines and common sense have still meant that we've been home for the most part since we traveled back from the east coast in October. It's been good to be able to get outside here, as it's easy to be separate and not around other people - plenty of open space - wonderful trails, most of them free.
One of our favorite places to ski, we can easily take Kira, Nancy Lake. The trails are groomed, not tracked, but they are ski only and have always been a great ski - nice hills, enough to be challenging, some flat around lakes and ponds, about an hour 15 minutes from our house - and sometimes we see no one the whole time that we're there - beautiful birch and spruce woods. We went there several times this year, and the first time we went with our RV - then froze as it was about 15 below zero overnight. The marine heater that Brian installed couldn't keep up!
We also ski on local trails, even right from our house, and we discovered a new set of trails so close by that we never knew we had easy access to - in our 11th year here. We can't even get to all of the places we could ski - there is never enough time! It's definitely been a winter wonderland, often with the hoar frost that covers everything! And it's great to come home to our little deck that keep the winter white lights on for in all of the darkness. And we used the outdoor electric sauna a lot this year - turn it on, go for a ski, and it's ready when we get home.
