It was kind of like hiking...

I was sitting here trying to figure out how to explain my day, and it dawned on me... It was kind of like hiking. You see... today was family cross country skiing day. This is how it went. So I was basically woken up really early this morning and told to throw on a bunch of clothes and hop into the vehicle to head to Manning Park for the day with the family. It had been about two years since the last and first time I had gone and I was half excited, and half anticipating the coldness that would accompany the million feet of snow that I could fall through if I were to fall off the trails. I did not know whether to wear lots of heavy clothes to keep warm, or light layers because of the exercise... or just wear rain pants because they would keep me dry! So really, I just packed them all and decided to decide when I got there.

After an hour and a half of driving, we arrived at our desitantion. The Nordic ski lodge that was located at the back of the ski resort - you see, cross country folk arent much for crowds, so they tend to be off in the boonies away from people. We rented our equipment, loaded up the vehicle and headed up the mountain to "Strawberry Flatts" to go on the Green (easy) route. Unfortunately, the male on our team (my step dad) didnt read the map right, and we ended up on the Blue Route that was a little harder than we bargained for! The first part was pretty much all down hills... which, if you have ever cross country skiied... doesnt work well because the skies arent made for downhill! I enjoyed the speed; however, my poor family was falling left right and centre down these hills. When my step dad finally decided to look at the map, we realized that we were headed back down to the lodge instead of being on an acutal 'flat' loop.

Much to my dismay, we turned around and headed back UP the hills in order to make it to Strawberry Flatts. Now, im not gonna lie, the down hill was a heck of a lot easier than the up! Oh man, I worked out muscles that I didnt know existed. We made it back just in time for lunch and hung out in the warm cabin. After lunch, we all decided that we were VERY sore from our first trek, but would try the flatts just because that was what we had our hearts set on. 25 minutes later we were done. My sister and ma were pretty much done for the day, but I really wanted to see what was at the bottom of the first route we took... but my step dad was also a little tired and sore. I dragged him along anyway, when I used the guilt face mixed with the "I dont want to do it alone" speech... hehe He did complain the whole way tho... apparently being old and out of shape really doesnt help when you are skiing.

You know that feeling that you get when you are hiking, where you are aching all over, and tired and know that you are out of shape but want to keep going, even though you know the pain you will feel the next day? Yes, thats the one! I definately was feeling that... I wanted so badly to keep going, but I knew that time and my joints were not in agreement with that. I settled for getting off the trail about an hour and a half in, and we headed back to the ski lodge to return our equipment. I could barely walk, but really the only thing that hurt was my right ring finger... haha I dont know why! The trip home was very snowy, and took much longer than I had anticipated.... Yep, long trip...

This evening, I am still feeling the burn! Just like last weekend when I went hiking and my legs were sore for days afterwards. I am sure this week will be the same - especially tomorrow! And despite my groanings about cross country skiing... I loved it! It is definately one of those things that I like to do, and would probably one way own the equpiment for.