Winter Playtime

Before living in Alaska, I had always imagined winter here as a time when people hole up in their cabins and huddle around a fire eating moose meat. In fact, the opposite is true. Now that the lakes are frozen and there is a good layer of snow accumulation on the ground, this whole town hast turned into one big winter playground. No matter how cold it gets, we always see people out riding snowmachines, sledding, ice skating, ice fishing, snowshoeing, and so on. So today we decided to join the fun.

It was a toasty 19 degrees this morning when we met up with our friends to try our legs at some cross country skiing. There are some world-renowned nordic ski trails just 5 minutes north of town, so we wasted no time in hitting the slopes.

Our friends are seasoned cross country skiers, but Brandon and I were definitely a little clumsy to start. What's great about xc-skiing, though, is that it's farily easy to pick up on. We were pushing up and tumbling cruising down steep hills in no time. 

It was a beautiful day, too. Light snowfall, hardly any people on the trails, and wildlife everywhere.

Those are ALL bald eagles in the trees! We counted about 20.

Photo-bombing the snuggling moose

Since Brandon and I are both lifelong snowboarders, we never thought we'd enjoy being on skis as much as we did today. But I have to admit, it was a blast. We loved the fact that we had to earn the thrill of the downhill glide rather than just riding a chair up. There were crowds to deal with, no expensive lift tickets to buy, and no pressure of a time limit. Just the four of us in the winter wilderness. Definitely a nice change of pace.

PS. I finally figured out how to add a "follow" function to the page! Enter your email into the box at the top right if you want to be notified about new posts (: