My cat died

My cat Spunky died a couple of days ago. She was 17 years old. It's been a long winter with my mom's cancer, and now this..

So I decided to go on a road trip to get out of the house. I took my cross country skis and went to Montana. I knew a dose of the cabin was what I needed. I stopped at Lookout Pass ski area (which is closed now) and climbed alone to the top where I took this picture. I guess it would be about 1500 feet of climbing. It's such a waste as there is so much snow, but I did have the whole place to myself and I was looking for solitude.

My skis climbed surprisingly well with their fish scale bottoms. It took me about an hour to get to the top. There was a crust on the snow. The whole way up I was wondering if I could force these skis into a telemark turn for the trip down with this crust. But it didn't matter, I was going to the top. No way could I ski down the trail I'd hiked up on. There would be no room to turn and I'd get going too fast. I'd have to ski down the face on my skinny skis. Kind of counter-intuitive, as you would think the trail would be safer. On the face, I'd do a step-turn traverse and telemark up-hill at the end of each traverse to stop myself. It worked perfectly and I zig-zaged my way down the mountain without falling. A good thing as there was no ski patrol to haul me away to hospital.

It was cold and windy when I got to the cabin. I went through the process of closing all of the valves and and started up the pump which I'd drained for the winter so it wouldn't freeze the pipes. It worked and there were no leaks and I had water inside. I built a fire, warmed the place up and went to bed. This morning I did some fencing. I thought about my old man who had built the fence. I could see the skills he had learned growing up on the ranch. He's gone now.

It's been a long winter.