We had a mix of seasonal outdoor activities in December. We hiked with not a single stitch of snow, we skied, we sledded, we snow hiked - the works!
1 December 2021: Sidewinder Trail
A brand new trail to check out! My friend Mary told me about this one, and while it took us a few tries to find the parking area and start spot, we finally did and enjoyed a lovely little walk in the cold afternoon sunshine. It definitely isn't a trail I'd choose to hike in the summer since there are no trees whatsoever, and it's probably more popular for bikers anyway, but we enjoyed the valley views, and for winter, it was great!
4 December 2021: Skyline North Trail to Overlook
We haven't hiked this one for a few years, since the last time we were on it we saw two rattle snakes. But we figured that since it was December, and cool, that the snakes were probably not going to be much of a problem. So we set out on a Saturday afternoon to try it. It was amazing how fast we made it to the top with such big kids this time! The view was kind of brown (normally in the summer the valley looks so green!), but at least our side of the mountains wasn't under a layer of yellow smog like the Ogden side. Yikes.
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| Testing the group shot set up. |
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| And there we are. |
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| Doesn't show up great in the pic, but the smog was pretty thick that way. |
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| My attempts at getting both sides of the mountain in a pano. Gregg titled it, "Why we live in Eden in one pic." |
11 December 2021: North Arm Trailhead
It snowed! We had a nice hike to the overlook on the main trail, and then cutting through the flatlands near the stick house toward the riverbed, which we followed back to the new, big bridge. We haven't ever done that exact route before, so it was fun to come around the bend and see the bridge from below.
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| Bunny tracks! |
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| Feeling very short with my kids standing on the bench at the overlook. |
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| They were prepared for sliding down the hill. (Gregg and I were not wearing snowpants, so we opted for the easier way down close to the stick hut.) |
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| If we had sent Christmas cards, I probably would have put this pic on it. Instead, if someone sent me a Christmas card, I texted them back with this pic and a thank you. It worked out great and I might keep it up for the foreseeable future. |
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| Toss rocks onto the ice is always a fun pastime. |
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| Back to the bridge! |
15 December 2021: First Day of the 2021-22 Ski Season!
Nordic finally had enough snow to open and we hit up the slopes at lunchtime for some fun runs.
17 December 2021: Back at Nordic
This time we headed straight to Apollo lift to take us to the top of the hill. Hoo boy! My legs were not ready for that quite yet; I was hurting! But we still had a great time, and now I know I need to work on some wall sits and squats for next time!
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| Sam crushin' it on Scout. |
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| There's Sam and Gregg coming off Stray Dog. |
We don't have access to skiing on weekends with our passes, so we have to find other ways to enjoy the snow on Saturday afternoons. We hauled Gregg's old snowboard down the trail from the trailhead near the yacht club and found a good gentle slope that when down to the lake bed. (In the past, we've slid from here onto the ice, but the water level is so low, that the end of the hill isn't even near the ice right now!) Unfortunately we had to cut things short after Gregg snagged his thumb on something during a run with Sam. He wrenched it pretty good, so we headed home so he could ice it and give it a break. (Luckily no lasting damage, seems to be fine now!)
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| Ain't nothin' better than some fresh pow on the Seven Sisters. |
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| It was a gorgeous day for an adventure. |
Ever since Cal opened her ice skates on Christmas, she's begged to go skating nearly every day. We got there when only one other teenager was there skating by himself. The rink hadn't been plowed off yet, but he had scraped a section himself with a shovel he brought. There was another shovel lying by the picnic tables, so I used it until it broke to scrape a bit more. Luckily, Cal doesn't mind if it's snow-covered a bit bumpy. And luckily Sam is a good sport about playing on the ice without skates. He's happy to just eat snow and run around and play with the hockey sticks and pucks.
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| It (sort of ) worked for a minute to scrape off the snow. And then it didn't work anymore. |
bonus videos!
(once again, she pops right back up when she falls, this time on our little
track we shoveled out inside the rink)
28 December 2021: Huntsville Park Ice Rink
Ah! Nice ice today! Night and day difference from the day before. Good stuff!
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