Tuesday, March 5, 2013

S.A.D.

"Snowlake Attempt Dos"
our first try to snowshoe to Snow Lake (Alpental at Snoqualmie) ended after couple of hours on the edge of a nasty looking avalanche chute. Last weekend, with a moderate avalanche forecast, we tried again. This time, we hiked high up on the eastern slope above the South Fork of Snoqualmie river, but the snowshoe track ended on the edge of badly churned slope. Not giving up so easily this time, we followed one set of snowshoe prints steeply down very deep snow to the river and tried to go up north on the western side. Finally, we reached the bottom of a very steep, almost tree-less slope, with recent signs of avalanche activity. Four skiers hiked up, but for us, on a Sunday afternoon, it was too late.


At least we saw where we need to go next time, there is the saddle on the horizon! We will get there on a sunny day when the snow is packed.

"Sudden Activity Decrease"
After Marketa's trail race where I tried to keep warm for half a day by hopping around the finish chute and calling out finishers' numbers, I went down with a bad sinus / ear infection, and it has been very slow crawling back up from the hole of inactivity. Of course, now running 6 miles is hard and I am sore the next day. With about six weeks before a planned 4-day mountain biking desert tour, I have zero miles in my knobbies and that makes me almost sad. More like mad! Despite numerous great trails in the proximity and me even signing up for some MTB Meetups, I don't seem to be able to scramble enough mental energy to plan a route, put the bike on the roof rack, drive to the trail head and PEDAL DAMN IT!
Then, there is the real S.A.D. (Seasonal affective disorder), I am still hoping the first winter in WA is too soon for that, but there are signs, just these little signs... spring is almost here.


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