A Fine Day in the Woods
I wanted to go on the Anvil Trails near Eagle River, WI over Winter Break. It’s a magical place where the chickadees jump into your hand for birdseed. I’ve been there a few times before and it seemed like the perfect Christmas Day snowshoe/x-country ski. Except that the high temperatures all during Winter Break were well below zero Fahrenheit.
Since I wimped out on driving CeeCee to a state park (because she wouldn’t start until I used the jumper cables and because the roof vent still has not been replaced and because I couldn’t find a campground with ski trails right off of the sites that also had electricity) I decided to put less pressure on myself and do some winter driveway camping again. That didn’t go so well. After tripping the GFCI outlet which provided us with the electricity for a lamp, space heater, heated blankets, TV/DVD, and microwave, (yeah, I was asking it to do a lot) the power tripped off, the girls went happily into the house while I grumbled.
This morning I got up, ready to take on a day of cross-country skiing to feed the birds. After climbing around in the garage to reset the GFCI outlet, I again started the space heater in CeeCee so that she would be warm for the evening, and 
we loaded up the vehicle, stopped for a quick hot dog at Dairy Queen, and got to the trail. Most people were snow shoeing and I felt a little bit like a rock star snapping on my skis. I prayed that I wouldn’t fall down in front of them. I didn’t – I fell later on from a standing position when I was hardly moving. For no apparent reason. Well, at least I have my first fall under my belt.
We went on for awhile until we reached the top of the giant hill. I’m positive that there is some kind of wind pattern which made this hill bigger than I had ever seen when I was on snowshoes. With legs shaky and wobbly, I slowly tested my skills on the hill I snowplowed so hard down that hill that my feet burned once I got to the bottom. I have to ask my PT about that the next time I see her. It HURT! A LOT! But I made it down the hill, sharp left turn and all, without flipping into the woods, slamming a small child, or catapulting down the hill head over heels like a giant snowball. That is SOMETHING!
We got to the shelter, tried to feed the birds who seemed happier to get their seeds from the ground instead of from our hands, I drank some tea and ate some cookies while the littles sipped hot chocolate.
Then we made the trip back. I preferred going up that giant hill. Down was scary; going up was just hard work. Today I remembered to bring my inhaler, but of course I didn’t need it because it was so handy to get this time! It figures.
We made it back to the parking lot, with rosy warm cheeks, tired legs, and open jackets to cool off. I brought my travel kitchen along and surprised the littles with some SpaghettiOs.
Did you know that they make organic SpaghettiOs now? For 60 cents more than the original kind. They do! And the organic version tastes no different. It was a fun afternoon – and that is something remarkable for us right now.
There is talk of doing some more skiing tomorrow before the storm comes in. I think that they just want me to cook more SpaghettiOs in the back of the car for them. That’s fine by me!
