Yesterday Ma Nature gave me a special birthday present: snow. (Dave gave me a hula-hoop. I can see a lot more laughter as I try to get back in shape.) I also got to grab a ride to the mountain at the more reasonable hour of 0730 instead of 0545. The ski area still doesn't have quite enough snow to open anything but the north peak, black diamond runs. The temperature was 16 degrees and it snowed about 1 foot of powder during the day. Except for the buried stump I ran into sending me floundering, skiing was amazing. My ride home left before final sweep. We crept down the mountain at 25 miles/hour in a line of cars and trucks that seemed to stretch from the ski area to town. The road was blizzard on ice. Eugene itself was actually bare but on the road from town, I passed three cars and a full size moving van in the ditch less than a mile from our drive. Dave left the ski area about 1/2 hour after us and encountered a major pile up of crashed cars. When he called to let me know he would be a few more hours, I put my birthday dinner back in the fridge and went outside with the dogs to play in the snow.
This morning the excited dogs would not let me sleep - there was snow to run in.
The view out the window above my bed.
The caboose.
And play they did as the sun rose.
Chinook tag - Cedar and Koyuk awaiting Willy to come crashing trough the bushes.
Taking pictures was not easy. The dogs were in constant motion. Only when it was their turn to tag the others zooming by, was I able to get a shot.
Chinook tag - Cedar and Koyuk awaiting Willy to come crashing trough the bushes.Taking pictures was not easy. The dogs were in constant motion. Only when it was their turn to tag the others zooming by, was I able to get a shot. Willy
Cedar
McKenzie
Koyuk
KoyukWe then took a harrowing sled run. 4+ inches of snow in my yard was not quite enough to cover the road under the trees. The dogs are strong enough that pulling the sled across frozen gravel did not phase them at all. My problems started after they got tangled around the fire address sign by the mailbox. I knew that as soon as I untangled them they would jet forward back across the icy road. They did. I managed to jump on the runners but the newspaper bounced out of the bag. Once back on the gravel I was able to stop them but, when I stepped off the sled to reach back and grab the paper, they took off.
I had decided to use a drag rope on this run since they seem to have forgotten the word "stop" no matter how desperately yelled. The rope got caught on my wrist and I was unceremoniously drug on frozen gravel until I could free it. The sled finally stopped the team by getting stuck in some blackberries after going off the cut bank on a sharp corner. Had the dogs come back to get me, they would have released it. But they just stood there tugging and barking to go on until I got to them. I made them pull the sled back up the cut bank with me on it and we were off again happily running back to the house.
The sled tied to the tree before hooking up the dogs. I was wise not to trust carrying my camera on this trip. 
You would think that after so many trips around the sun, I would have enough common sense to take up less body damaging activities - like hula-hooping. Um - maybe Dave was trying to tell me something. 
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