2017 Ely Birkebeiner

 The Ely Outdoor Enthusiasts sponsored the Ely Birkebeiner cross country ski race again this year up on Ward Mountain. They moved it to January, which turned out to work great because we had awesome snow (and then a huge warming trend in much of February).

The kids and I were all planning to race, but then I wasn't feeling so great that morning and really wanted to watch the kids race, which I wouldn't get to do if I raced, so we only registered them. But I put on my skis for a little warmup.

Then we watched the adults take off.

The colorful flags made for a very nice start! The wind was really blowing at the start and it was cold.

The adult skiers were doing about 6 miles in a loop.

They quickly stretched out into a line.

 Then it was time for the kids to go up on the hill to their start.

Desert Girl and Desert Boy were so excited to compete. They had been practicing and really wanted to get a medal.

I went ahead to break trail, as the new snow had covered the old trail. Desert Boy eventually came along. He wasn't the first.

These two sisters were battling for the lead. Their mom said they are super competitive.

After awhile I saw Desert Girl. Remember that cold wind at the start? Well, we didn't feel it in the trees, and she quickly overheated. I started taking layers from her. Then her ski binding broke in a way that we couldn't fix. So she had to just shuffle along with one leg and ski with the other. She was not happy.

This little guy was doing really well. The kids' ski race is pretty short, but there are so few kids doing it that they are spaced out a lot.

At the kids' turnaround I saw my friend Meg on the adult course.

 Then I went back to encouraging Desert Girl with her broken binding.

She got passed, which didn't make her too happy.

But she kept going, and I kept telling her that was the important part.

And we finally made it to the finish line! Desert Boy came in fourth, but when he learned that the three kids that passed him were all siblings and their mom used to teach skiing, he felt a little better. I think he was pretty happy with the way he skied.

There were some group photos and a photo of the medalists. Meg came in second for women!

It was a fun morning, with perfect ski conditions. It's so nice to have the opportunity to participate in an event like this. Thank you, Ely Outdoor Enthusiasts!

Sledding by Too Tall Tony

Another storm came and dumped more snow, and we got a call if we wanted to go sledding. Why not? It was beautiful and a great excuse to go outside! We went up to what we call the Too Tall Tony Hill, which is a pullout with a two-track. The south side is rocky, but once you pop over to the north side, there's a very snowy two-track.

Ava was ready to go.

And then we followed.

Did I mention this is a really long sledding hill? It's super awesome.

More kids were arriving, and they went to the actual Too Tall Tony Hill, a shorter but steeper hill up the road. So we went over to join them.

What's with Too Tall Tony? Oh, he's just a little too tall for his grave, so his legs stick out.

His grave is on an earthen dam that's nice and steep. Desert Girl loved it.

The clouds were drifting by, making the whole scene a little surreal.

Willow's expression is great on this one! She went up and down so many times. If this snowy trend keeps up, we'll be going on lots more sledding trips this winter.

After the Storm

 The morning after one of our big storms dawned with sunny and really cold temperatures. There had been enough melting the day before to make some nice icicles.

The snow-covered trees showed that we had gotten quite a lot of precip.

The school looked sharp in the crisp air. (This was before another storm that blew part of the roof off!)

It's a good thing this little trailer is used just in the summer, because it would be so cold right now!

The church looked good in the morning light with the snow-covered mountain behind it.

And even though the sun was shining, it was cold. Oh--have I already said that? It's been a cold January!

Even the rabbitbrush had a sizable amount of snow on it!

The winter does mean some extra pretty clouds and light on the mountains, with the snow to reflect it.

And drives up the mountain usually mean driving in some snow, as it takes the plows a few hours to get out to us. Even with all the storms, it's unusual not to see a little bit of blue sky every day.

Snowy, Snowy January

 This January sure has felt like winter! Lots of snow and cold temperatures. You'll see that theme in this and upcoming posts!

One afternoon we wanted to go sledding, but the roads were so bad we couldn't drive anywhere. So we went over to the nearby pond, which was now empty, and sledded into the bottom of it.

Desert Girl found a nice hill nearby and we all followed.

I love their expressions!

Desert Boy decided to climb a tree. Getting down was a little trickier.

Sledding party!

We decided to change our venue and go over to the gas station, which was being plowed. The old cabins looked very scenic with their snow coatings.

Looks like Ava wanted a snow coating too! This girl loves snow!

We trudged along in the snow, the colorful coats and sleds lighting up the afternoon.

You can see how deep the snow was by the spigots. Obviously no one was camping here that night.

Angie really loved the snow too, burying herself in it and running all around. This photo is bittersweet for me, as she was hit by a truck and killed the next day. She enjoyed her short life, but her bad habit (that we didn't quite manage to break) of chasing vehicles was a dangerous one that ultimately didn't work out.

At that point, though, we were ready for fun in the snow.

We saw the snow plows come by, at about 4 pm. They had been by at about 8 in the morning, then went back and couldn't get back to us until about 10-12 inches of snow later! The schools dismissed early and the kids still got home late because one school bus broke down on the road, another could barely move through the unplowed snow, and it all was a bit chaotic.

Once the plow came by, we had a semblance of normalcy and enjoyed walking down busy main street.

Oh my, this will be a winter to remember!