A rumor circulated the small animal medicine service the week before Christmas. The whispering among students had it that we may have Friday the 22nd off, barring having patients in the ICU. My friend KG (a female) seeded the Friday snowshoeing idea, I jumped at the possibility, and we made tentative plans to go. As the coveted day approached, we learned that our fondest hopes were true and we did, indeed, have the day off. The snowshoeing plans turned into skiing, and Friday morning found KG and I rendezvousing at the veterinary school.
We got into my small Toyota Echo because I have chains and her truck weighs, she said, about 2 oz. Am I comfortable driving on snow? Enough to do it, not enough to avoid increased sympathetic tone.
We stopped at GI Joe's to get a Sno-Park pass, arriving just as they opened. I got a season pass and picked up some 130 skis (so short because I have not skied since I was 7 yrs old). We picked up some Veggie Booty from the next door Safeway, and set out toward the Santiam Pass and, more precisely, HooDoo Mountain Resort.
There was a time when I thought driving on snow was dangerous -- and it is, at least more dangerous than a dry road in the dead of summer. But I have grown to appreciate packed snow, especially the kind with gravel of red lava rock imbedded in it. It sure beats slush or black ice. On Friday, we carried chains but did not need them. The drive was fantastic -- the sky blue, snow on the trees, listening to a variety of Christmas music which KG brought along (er, the snow wasn't listening, we were).
The whole skiing experience took me back to the days when my family went skiing near Tahoe, CA. The lodge with skiers clomping around in their ski boots; a lift pass on my coat (now it is fully initiated); riding and getting off the chairlift; setting off into the forest with no one I knew around. KG and I purchased our lift tickets, donned our gear, and set off toward the chair lift. The first time down the hill, I fell, oh, perhaps 5 times on a green-circle but non-bunny hill -- to the great amusement of my friend. My boots were too tight and my feet ached like nothing else and I was worried it would be that way all day. Aching feet sadly do not perform up to speed. Thankfully, I gave them a rest, tightened my boots less, and the rest of the day they were golden (relatively).
The bunny slope became my friend for a few times as I figured out my slaloms and a little bit of the slow-down idea and then I set out on the other green circles. I performed a couple particularly impressive falls/slides, one in which I slid perhaps 20 feet and left my poles way behind. I joked to Kristin that she should pay me for all the endorphins I helped her create (by providing amusing material for her to laugh at). I got my fall frequency down to 0-2/descent by the time we left. My friend KG, on the other hand, had fun on a black diamond slope in between skiing with me.
I had wondered for a while how the whole skiing-in-a-dress idea would function. Friday I wore ski pants and a skirt, and the skirt posed no problem whatsoever. It was rather humerous, however, how it became covered in snow and frozen stiff.
We hadn't given up on the snowshoeing desire, so we left HooDoo before the sun left the skies (that shouldn't be plural). It was getting dusky and cold, and I thought the roads would be icy. So, being the one driving, I chose to put the chains on. Now, the chains I have are not particularly straight forward and they have all sorts of hooks and chains to tighten them down. We got them on with little mishap, tightened them part way between the ski place and the highway, and then discovered that the highway was largely clear of snow. So we stopped at the sno-park across the road and proceeded to take off the chains. One came off, no problem. The other was stuck, somewhere behind the wheel where it was difficult to see. My car does not have considerable clearance, maybe 8 inches max, and I had a mental block against the appropriateness of putting my head under a car (especially since it was running at the time). So I spent the first portion of my rescue attempts lying on my back, feeling blindly behind the wheel. It eventually seemed that the chain was stuck on the axle/something. I realized the necessity of overcoming my mental block, and finally ventured my head underneath the car. The problem was still not entirely apparent, but I realized that I had previously made the situation worse by shoving part of the chains over the axle. I remedied this, jostled the stuck portions, and eventually, after perhaps 15 minutes of labors, the chains we free. Yippee! I had entertained visions of bull-cutters severing the chains away from my car, visions of driving the car with the chains hanging from the axle (not something I would have done) -- and was incredibly thankful not to have to do anything so drastic.
Snowshoeing was fantastic. We strapped on our borrowed shoes and headed off into the forest. The snow was largely untouched, though there was evidence of another snowshoer prior to the last snowfall. We came upon a cabin with the door ajar, the door some 2-3 feet below where we were standing on the snow. Up the hill farther was a larger lodge-type structure, all boarded up and belonging to who knows who -- probably the forest service. I have the itch to go again, on a much longer adventure.
It was a day to remember and cherish for a long time.
