Here we are, 4 days away from Thanksgiving and I am writing a entry about our early Christmas present we just received, compliments of Mother Nature! To those of you who may be reading our blog for the first time we are snow lovers. I, myself, have a full blown snow addiction! Cindy watches me agonize over each botched snow forecast one after the other all winter long but she also gets to see me frolic like a 3 year old when the snow finally comes.
All summer long we have been listening to all the weather people talk about the strong El Nino we are supposed to have this winter and how it may affect us. Of course the predictions are all over the board which means someone is going to be right in the end. We are just hoping the ones who are saying it will be a warm snowless winter are wrong. Either way, last Wednesday when we started hearing about a snow storm for areas north of us we started discussing making a run up north in hopes we might get to make some tracks in it. We went back and forth on where to go. First we thought we might have to drive 7 hours to Roscommon MI to XC Ski Headquarters as they were forecasting 8" for them. Then the forecast shifted and it looked like north east Indiana would get a nice snow so Friday night I started looking at Pokagon state park in Angola. Saturday morning the forecast changed again and the area around South Bend was now going to get 4 to 9 inches.
We decided to roll the dice on South Bend and headed north about 1 pm Saturday. We started seeing snow flakes about 30 mins north of home and drove in snow all the way there. We really lucked out and only had to divert around one accident just south of South Bend. We arrived in town about 6 pm or so and since Cindy had never been there I showed her the Notre Dam campus as bands of lake effect snow, my three favorite winter words, continued to drop large snow flakes on us. After dinner on the way to the hotel they had 6 inches on the ground with more falling. It was so pretty driving around in it that I hated to go in but I knew we needed some rest.
I awoke early the next morning, after being awake half the night checking out the window each time to see how much more they had gotten. I was really nice in that I let Cindy sleep in as late as I could. The park we were going to ski in did not open till 10 am so there was no real need to get up at first light, although I would have had we been able to ski. We finally headed to breakfast about 9 and while we were standing in line for breakfast in the hotel dining area I was looking out the big windows on the west side of the room and saw what I thought looked like a people trail. Cindy said she turned around and I was gone. I had to find out so I went to the front desk and asked.
Turns out I was right and it had just opened this past fall. The clerk said it was going to go all the way to South Bend but for now it stopped 2 miles south at the state line. I asked if we could ski to the park from the trail and she said yes. How could I have not known about this sooner??? I went back to find Cindy sitting at the bar looking out the windows eating her breakfast. I sat down next to her with mine and told her to eat up as we can ski as soon as we were done. I inhaled my breakfast as I told her about the trail. Secretly I know she was happy I did not find out sooner as she would not have gotten to sleep in!
We loaded our stuff back in Pearl and got out our skis. When we headed north Saturday we talked about how we would be happy with 3 to 4 inches of snow to make some tracks in. What we got turned out to be 6 to 8" of fluffy power!
It felt so good to get back on our skinny skis! The people trail was paved and it was still warm so we could not ski on that part but just off the pavement was really nice snow so we headed south to the state line,. We skied 2 miles to the line and discovered that the trail did not connect to the park we wanted to go to so we skied back to the car. We did not mind as we were skiing in November before Turkey day!
The weather was perfect for skiing as there was no wind, temps around 15 degrees, and the snow was really nice, especially early on. The trees were all frosted white with snow and it was just so hard to believe it was still fall!
We made it back to pearl and loaded up for the drive over to Madeline Bertrand park. After a quick stop to get a cappuccino we pulled into the park and found this waiting on us
It got even better when rounded the last curve and saw the visitors center in the distance
The sky was so blue and the snow in the trees make this picture worthy of a being on a post card! This was our first time at this park and I can assure you it wont be our last! The park was gorgeous and the facilities were so clean and nice. The visitors center had a really nice lodge area with a large fireplace and windows looking outside on several large bird feeders. This little guy was making the most of all the bird food being dropped by the birds.
He was so fat we thought he was ground hog at first. Turns out he was just a really well fed squirrel who was not going to have any problem staying warm this winter, so long as he can get his big belly into his whole in the tree!
We paid our 3 dollar parking fee and hit the trails. Not really knowing where to go we took off down the first trail we saw and found really nice and very pretty trails waiting on us. The park is bordered by the St Joseph river on the west side and we skied along the edge of it past a look out and a really nice shelter house complete with overlook and fireplace.
By now the sun was starting to warm the limbs on the trees to the point that the snow was sliding off them making it look like it was snowing again in the woods. Here we are on a trail with a snowy back drop from all the falling snow
We made a lap around the outside of the park and by the time we got back to the start the sun was winning the battle. The snow was starting to stick to our skis and although we knew each minute we got to ski was a gift from Mother Nature we hated to see it come to an end. Sadly we headed back to Pearl when we got back to the start as we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us and the sticking snow was only going to get worse.
Some of you might think that we are crazy to drive 8 hours to get to ski for 3 1/2. To myself who has a severe addiction to snow, I just think that is normal behavior. Like sailing, we just can't understand why people do not like xc skiing. You are outside enjoying some of mother nature's fineset splendor and if you do it right the last thing you get is cold. We did see a couple of other skiers out on the trails at Madeline Bertrand so we are not the only crazy people out there.
We can't wait to go back as they have 2.5 miles of lit trails that they have night skiing on Friday and Saturday nights during ski season. We are hoping to be able to xc ski there on Friday night and then downhill the next day a little further north at Sweetbriar.
Speaking of downhill skiing, Christmas came even earlier for Cindy this year. Two weeks ago we were sitting in our double rocker with our feet up on the hearth in front of the fire looking at pics on my phone trying to pick a Christmas card pic when I goofed and let the cat out of the bag. I had gotten us downhill skis as a surprise Christmas present from Santa for us off of Craigslist. They were privately owned skis used 5 times. I got a awesome deal and even though I had to get different boots for myself as the ones that came with them were too small for me I still wound up with less than the cost of one used set at a ski reseller in them. I had taken a pic of the boots that were too small for me to put on ebay and forgot to erase them off my phone. As I was flipping pics on my phone up pops the boots. I quickly flipped to the next one which was another angle of the boots. In this one you could see the inside of the hanger door in it. I was busted. I tried to act like it was nothing and flipped past them but Cindy was like hey, go back. She had me. I gave up and went and got her skis and boots for her. She was one happy camper. She gets this silly giggle when she is really happy. It really is adorable even though I was miffed at myself for ruining the surprise. She had the boots on in no time which fit her perfectly. Then she hopped into her skis on the rug in front of the front door. As she stood there checking herself out in the reflection off the window in the door she informed this meant she was going to have get herself a new ski coat as her new one she just got did not match her skis. Who knew they had to match? Not me LOL!
We have also recently acquired a Yakima Skybox roof top carrier to carry our skis in. It did not take Cindy long to put two and two together as the downhill skis were the real reason for that purchase. The downhill skis have metal edges and with all the road salt they use around here they would be ruined if we carried them on the roof in our open ski rack. I hate road salt!!!! Now we can carry all our skis and boots in the Skybox and have room for another couple to ride with us or we can just have room inside for more stuff.
As you can see we have multiple reasons to be very hopeful that this ski season really works out and we get snow! Here is hoping that you all have a very happy Thanksgiving, and please remember it is not too early to be praying for snow. We would appreciate all the help we can get in that department as we are not against asking for devine intervention when it comes to snow!!!!
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