River recon

My river trail over-wintered well.

Pugsley loves this area. Man does it love it.

Maddie is doing the no-hands thing now. This is how she does it. I've tried to explain the idea of just hovering the no-hands above the bars in case things go sideways.

This is her just as things went sideways. She did the hop, jump, and skip-off dismount.
It was pretty pro.

Lots of run-off up there.

Big sky.

Liza had her hands and bucket pannier full as she did her first trash round-up of the season.  

Some snow still on the banks.

Scatology.

My bucket overfloweth with trash.

Skiing

Spy photo: Me. Skiing with prototype invisible skis.

I like it. I want to get better at it. I want to get all backcountry about it.

I got these skis a few years ago for big snow commutes when I worked about 3 miles away. I did that commute on skis exactly twice. I've taken them up to the local park a few times in the last couple years on big snow days, but I've always wanted to dive in more.

My buddy, Kaaren, took me up to Mt Spokane this morning and let me loose on their nordic trails. I really suck at the basics, but I love the whole thing: super quiet, hearty workout, and lots of skills to develop. I'm in.

You may wonder how I took such excellent photos all alone up in the mountains?

I used my monopod: