Cross Country Skiing: 1st Attempt.

After shoveling for an hour today, and after falling down the icy stairs and dropping my gorceries, and after sliding all over the roads, I need to focus on the positives of living in a winter wonderland. I don't have to think too hard. Really, just back to this past Saturday. It's not too hard to remember, mainly because my quadriceps are still sore from the winter adventure. But I must say, it is by far my favorite winter activity yet.

Saturday afternoon I attended a girls only cross country expedition. And by expedition I mean one hour jaunt. It was my first time donning cross country skis - that much was obvious to everyone.

Fortunately, the girls were great about it and explained the concept and equipment in detail.

They didn't even judge my awesome 80's ski shoes.

Carla simply explained that the square toe piece is for clipping into the skis.

She said it wouldn't matter that they were broken either. Duct tape was our back up plan.

Once my shoe slid in to the metal clip and the hook latched, it was all good.

Jana's shoes were much cooler than mine. But she didn't judge me.

Even when I realized my ski pole was rotted through and broken...

They didn't laugh too hard.

Fortunately, the nice man in charge of the trails lent me an extra pole. It didn't matter that the borrowed pole was broken - didn't matter one bit.

Once we finally got going I tried to find my stride - my groove, if you will.

I started off well and was feeling pretty good about myself.

It took a minute to realize that my heel wasn't attached to the ski - makes gliding much easier that way.

But the further we went, the further back I fell. I'm not complaining though. I was loving it.

I caught up to the girls when we hit a hill. Apparently cross country trails do not typically have hills. They're mainly flat and have ski tracks the entire way. The hills we encountered were so steep that we had to take our skis off and walk!

Walking up the hills was more work than the skiing itself. And skiing isn't easy. In below freezing temperatures I had my hat off, my gloves off, my jacket unzipped and I was still sweating. Cross country skiing equates to the intensity of running.

Look how long these suckers are. It's a good thing the skis are so light.

Anyway, three days later I can still feel the workout in my legs. It hurt so good.

Word on the street is we're going night skiing later this week. Details to come...