They Tell Me It's April

They tell me it's April, but you could have fooled me.

Spring Time in Alaska.  No offense to Johnny Horton, but June's voice makes this my preferred version of his song:

 

Had a modified version of this stuck in my head riding around last night:
"When it's springtime in Alaska there's four feet of snow."

We've had two storms move through in the past 5 days, each dropping 6-14inches of snow depending on where you're at in town.
While lot's of folks are grumbling and understandably ready for spring I've been more than happy to watch the snow come down.  And what great snow it's been.
Not the heavy wet concrete snow you'd expect in the spring, but fine, light powder. One of the finer things in life if you ask a ski bum in recovery like me.

I haven't managed to ski much lately for a variety of reasons, but I have managed to get out and ride around in the fresh stuff.

Sunset Sunday.  

In between storms. 

Over 14hours between sunrise and sunset these days.

Fat tracks in fresh snow.

 

The front deck on our house has a ramp instead of steps.

The previous owner built it so a wheelchair bound friend 

could drive his 4wheeler right up onto the deck and hang out.

The bike friendliness was a definite bonus when we bought the house.

Hard to tell by the photo, but it was still 

coming down hard when I was out riding last night.

Spring will appear sooner or later, but for now I'm going to keep doing my best to enjoy the amazing combination long days and great snow.

This is Going to be a Game Changer

We got a great deal on a Chariot kids trailer a while back. My wife and I both love to ski, in fact we met skiing, and we've gotten the little man out XC skiing a decent amount in his first winter. We've been holding out for a good deal on the Chariot ski kit, they're sweet, but $250 is not money I spend lightly. Finally scored one this week. We've wasted no time putting it to work.

One happy little skier

Scoping out the ice from the bridge

A bit of overflow icing up the trail

Yep, She's Awesome.

Over the weekend my wife and I were able to squeeze in some quality time together doing a few of our favorite things. In years past we spent innumerable days together skiing, biking and exploring together. For a variety of reasons the past year the opportunities to get out together have been few and far between.

Saturday we headed out and got in an excellent backcountry ski tour. The weather and snow conditions weren't excellent, the day was excellent mostly for the fact that it was my wife's first time out this season. Being 6 1/2 months pregnant she has had other priorities for the past few months and just hasn't gotten out. Being on skis was about as comfortable and excited as I have seen her in a while. She couldn't have wiped the silly grin off her face if she wanted too.

Sunday she was admittedly sore from skiing, but eventually agreed to head out on a bike ride with me. We had an unseasonably warm afternoon and got to spend the better part of the afternoon cruising along the river and across town. All this too say I love having a wife who isn't just willing to indulge my habits, but is happy to join me in my adventures even when she is pregnant.

Give it a few months and I'll be out cruising around with my little man. For now I'm a regular reader of the Totcycle blog, and I'm plotting my baby biking strategy. I'd love a Surly Big Dummy, or a Bakfiets, but I would definitely settle for a much more cost effective Madse

n with a big ol' bucket.

-bike wrider