Winter XC Ski Weekend: Day 3

When you travel with a group you need to stay loose. The plans for Day three changed more times than I can count - snowshoeing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking at Blackwater Falls, skiing ...When it came down to it, Peter, Suzanne and I went snowshoeing, most of the rest of the group went cross-country skiing, and Peter and Gina, after getting their usual late start, went hiking.

In the woods on show shoes

I had never been on snow shoes before. The other Peter was an experienced snowshoer. Suzanne and I strapped on our borrowed (from Dave & Cyndi) snowshoes and followed Peter into the woods. Well, other than Peter's initial preference for bushwhacking straight uphill, it was a blast. Skis let you move quickly through the snow, but you're somewhat constrained by terrain. Snow shoes let you go anywhere. We hiked alongside trails. We hiked off trails. We hiked up hillsides. We ran into the rest of the group at one point.

The day was much warmer. Saturday we had been wishing for more layers' Sunday we were stripping them off.

Were we having fun? By the midpoint of the day Suzanne and I were speculating where and when to get the best deals on buying snow shoes - a good sign for our enjoyment of the day, but a bad sign for the wallet.

The snowshoers were the first back to the lodge, but soon the rest of the group began to trickle in. Lunch for me was once again the spicy curry lentil soup. Peter and Suzanne, who weren't driving, each ordered beers and settled in. The Whitegrass lodge is the kind of place that invites you to hang out, except when it's jam packed (as it was on Saturday). As a result we lingered for a while before all heading our separate ways back home. A wonderful weekend.

Almost the whole group: Jen, Cat, Reggie, Dave, Cyndi and Rob (front table), Suzanne, Pe

ter, Nelson and Caroline (rear)

The trip home was like a trip between seasons. Some warmer weather was rolling in and as I left Canaan Valley the thermometer went from the 30's to the 50's pretty quickly. Back home it was near 60 degrees, which made me eager to ditch the thermal base layer I was wearing . That weather rolled into Canaan as well and a few days later the webcams were showing sad bare spots where we had been skiing. Well, I guess we timed it just right for some not-quite-spring skiing.

Everyone except Peter and Gina