I have officially dubbed 2008 the year of high adventure. And this weekend I had another fabulous adventure. This time in the snowy wonderland of Star Valley, Wyoming.
Caron, Jamie, Matt and I headed up to Star Valley to do some cross-country skiing with some of Jamie's friends. We stayed in the lovely town of Thayne, Wyoming in the Cowboy Bunkhouse on Friday night. Friday just happened to be National Hula in the Coola Day, so we had to celebrate by doing some hula moves on our front porch in the freezing "coola" weather.
The Cowboy Bunkhouse was so cool! It was a log cabin with really cool horse pillows, a horse shower curtain, a log towel rack, buffalo, LOTS of snow, bunk beds, and best of all....a cowboy light fixture!
I want one for my room! On Saturday we got up early, and since it was Groundhog Day, Caron wore her lovely groundhog shirt and we looked for our shadows. (We did not see them all day long, so I guess that means spring is on the way!) We were going to choose the person in the group who looked most like a groundhog to perform the shadow sighting ceremony, but then we decided that might be mean.
I had never been cross-country skiing before and we were going with a bunch of experts, so I was a little intimated at first. But I did just fine, and it was so much fun! I totally loved it. We even saw several dog sled teams along the path. I have never seen a real, live dogsled before. It was really cool!
It was amazingly beautiful out there. I got the hang of it pretty quick and was just trekking along through the winter wonderland. I had heard about how hard cross-country skiing was, but it definately wasn't nearly as hard as I was expecting.
We skied 10 miles to this really cool place called Granite Hot Springs. It's this gorgeous hot springs pool out in the middle of nowhere. It was so cool being in that hot springs surrounded by feet and feet of sparkly snow. And boy did that hot water ever feel fantastic after 4 hours of skiing in the snow.
After the hot springs, we put our skis back on and headed back out for another 10 miles. I was doing great until about Mile 17. Those last few miles really kicked my butt! Matt got really sick at about Mile 13 and had to hitch a ride back from a snowmobiler. Caron and Jamie did the same at about Mile 15. I felt kinda bad that they had to wait for me to finish, but I wasn't about to give up when I knew I could make it the whole distance.
The trail was absolutely gorgeous. We skiied alongside the Snake River and through some mountains. My favorite parts were where the trail curved through the snow-covered pine trees. I am pretty sore today though, but it was so worth it!
It was lightly snowing the whole day long, and it was just so serene. I absolutely loved it. The drive home on Saturday night was a bit interesting. Poor Matt got really sick and we had to stop every half hour the whole way home for him. We would have just stayed the night in Wyoming, but we were trying to hurry and get home because there was a big snow storm coming and we didn't want to get stuck in Wyoming til Tuesday. But we made it home safely and soundly. Bring on the next adventure!
4 comments:
WOW, what a beautiful FUN trip! I've never been cross country skiing eiter, BUT it looks like fun. How'd you get warm again after getting out of that water in the middle of the snow?
That looks incredible. I am so impressed right now.
Hooray for escaping Utah! Although, I don't understand why you would go somewhere COLDER than it is here. . .
Ah, I'm so jealous. When my family and I lived in Alaska, we used to go skiing most weekends. My parents and sister had skis, then me and the younger two borrowed skis from school. Yeah, Alaska schools are awesome. Ice skating rinks on the playground, and cross-country ski clubs. I'll bet the pine tree areas were neat. We used to ski through birch tree stands. So pretty and serene. I loved it. If you go again, let me know, I would love to come. And if you ever need a place to stay...Idaho Falls isn't too far from Star Valley, or Jackson.
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