Coastal Trail Skiing

I arrived back in Anchorage on the night of the 2nd after a very fun trip to California to visit family and friends.

I've fallen a bit behind on blogging with the holidays and a pretty busy schedule. Look for a post in the near future on my trip in December to the Talkeetna Wilderness Woman Competition and Bachelor's Ball. For now, please enjoy some pictures from the Coastal Trail.

An earlier post back in September showed some views of this trail when I was biking it. Now it's covered in snow and quite beautiful. The Westchester Lagoon is frozen over and has skating trails groomed all over it. Today was gorgeously clear and sunny if cold (my eyelashes had ice on them when I got home) and so there was a crowd of families out on the ice enjoying the sunshine.


I was on skate skis, which are a lot like cross country skis. They are about the same length, but a bit narrower. The big difference is that classic cross country skis have a section under the foot that is either sticky from kleister wax or has scales to provide traction while the rest of the ski bottom is smooth to allow gliding. Skate skis are faster and the whole underside is smooth. Instead of the cross-country motion, you skate as if you were on ice skates or rollerblades. It's a lot of fun and a great workout. I'm still picking it up, so I take the occasional embarrassing slow-motion fall when I over balance to one side.

This evening I spent visiting friends. I watched the NH primary debates at Mike and Kaity's place with them and Kate. Then Kate, Liz and I walked over to Megan's for a dinner party featuring a haggis flown in from England today. I've never had haggis before, and it wasn't half bad. Then I picked up Lila from the airport. All in all, a pretty busy day.