Archangel Road Ski

The wind in the entire area is still blowing between 50 and 75 miles per hour. It is so cold and I could hardly stand up just taking the dog for a walk. It was also only 6 degrees. Pam texted that she has the day off and wondered if I would like to ski somewhere. It turns out, she has decided to retire so we will do many more hikes and skis in the future! There was no way either of us wanted to deal with that wind. We also had time constraints because she needed to pick up her granddaughter from school and I needed to take a neighbor to his doctor appointment. Archangel Road rarely gets that north wind, so we decided to meet up there. As we put on our skis, Bella decided that she was cold and was just not in the mood. She sat down and refused to walk. I told Pam to go on, and I'd try putting her booties on. When I took off my backpack, Bella tried to get into it. So, I took the hint, packed her up and put her in the pack. By now, Pam and her dog, Dahla were completely out of sight. I did the fastest sprint skiing I think I have ever done and finally managed to catch up with them. I worked up quite a sweat with the extra weight on my back. It was the best workout I've had all week! We didn't think we would make it all the way to the bridge, but we did. That always a nice destination because it's groomed to right before the bridge. After that, it gets very chewed up by snow machines. It becomes a multi-use trail at that point. Bella was starting to squirm, so I let her out of the pack. We turned back and Bella ran with us all the way back.  We got back to the cars very quickly. It seems like a fairly flat trail, but in reality, it is a gradual uphill all the way, except for the last little hill down to the bridge. Going back is always much quicker with some nice downhill runs. It was beautiful up there. The view down in the valley looked like the windy stormy disaster that it was. But up there it was gorgeous. We had a great time and got all of our deadlines met. We skied almost 5 miles.