My little local market. Love it. They have amazingly sweet and cute female employees. At the height of the storm, Jim and I headed north to Al and Barry's - after the obligatory beer stop at Madore's.
Someone is feeling better! Howling like the crazy dog she is. It is amazing to me how quickly she healed. This photo was taken Saturday - only 8 days after her emergency surgery. I took her to the vet on Friday morning to have her staples removed. The vet said no restrictions, and here she is, unrestricted and loving life. You can see her shaved leg (her left front) where they had to shave for the IV.
Al and I did a great ski together from her house. The woods were awesome and the snow was coming down. We were warm and happy - cruising the woods for two and a half hours or so.
I love the snowmobile trail culture. There is a whole world out there.
That evening we celebrated Barry's birthday. Al had her friend Morgan (who owns the Orange Cat Cafe in Kingfield and is an AMAZING baker) make Barry a very special cake. It was chocolatey and peanut buttery and richer than rich. The thing must have weighed 10 pounds. We had a nice dinner of elk burgers and salad, many drinks and ended with the decadent dessert. A killer way to celebrate the storm and friends.
On Sunday, I completed the loop I was unable to complete a few weeks ago because of the squall, the incoming Arctic air and my trail trepidation. The trail is not at all well-marked (which is fine by me, as I am sure that keeps people off it) and in the winter, everything kind of looks like a trail out there. So this time, I went in on the road and made the loop in the opposite direction as I tried it a few weeks ago. It worked, and I was able to connect it. Two hours and 30 minutes - breaking trail all but about a half hour of it. I was SO happy to see that no snowmobilers and no groomers had been out. It was quiet and pristine, and aside from the dogs, I was alone. Bliss.
This is the one section where two snowmobiles had been through - it connects Mt. Blue State Park to Avon. This is the trail I hope to connect to from the Avon side some day over February break. What I really want to do is ski all the way through and have someone pick me up on the other side. I pieced together a pretty good chunk of this on that ski I did out in Avon two weeks ago. It is good to have goals : )
This is what the trail looked like the rest of the time - unbroken, sunny and sweet. I am on this trail a fair bit during mountain biking season, and it is ATV only during the winter. So since they do not groom and do not do trail maintenance (there were several blow-downs I had to work around) it is blissfully vacant. I am probably jinxing myself, but it blows me away that I seem to be the only one who uses it in the winter - there isn't a trace of others out there. I hope it stays that way. I feel like I have the place to myself.
I ended the morning with a nice conversation with the guy whose house is right by where I park (man, does he have a sweet spot). We have talked before, but this time I offered my name and got his. My favorite quote from him was, (after he led with, "I don't mean to be nosy, but how was your walk?") -- "I'm awful proud of you, sweetheart." He is so pleased that I get out there with the dogs and that I enjoy myself. I am kind of a Sunday morning regular, so he is getting used to me and me to him. He is always doing "chores" -- I ask him about coyotes; he asks me what I saw for tracks and wildlife. That morning he told me that he had me beat; he had been up since 3am. I asked him if he saw any coyotes, he answered, "No. A buncha deer and a buncha turkeys."
Until next time - here's hoping for another big, dumping snowstorm.
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