Naturally, I was also trussed-up in my ski trappings, although I look like Jabba the Hut on toothpicks.
We were out in the wilds of Garden Creek Gap, just five miles from our house. This area seems to be an unpopulated back door to the mountain range just to the west of our home. Old Tom is the dominant mountain, topping out at just under 9000 ft. In these pics Karren and I are at about 6000 feet on a gravel fire road known as "Upper Rattlesnake Road," which runs a ridge line due west away from the paved access. We only got about a mile and a half up the ridge before we turned around. It is best to stop before you get too tired to careen out-of-control down the mountain, for that is what we beginners end up engaging in. Sheer madness, but fun!
At about the half-way point we encountered a large covey of grouse and were fascinated by their antics. I managed to get a picture of their tracks in the snow for posterity.
The birds were a riot and they were noisy. They are about the size of a chicken, but much more plump with stubby head and tail. I attempted to get a picture of them but it turned out to look like fly specks on white paper.
We have since been back to the Mink Creek area for a run up the Corral Canyon Trail. As we went up at 3PM the snow was a bit soft and the melting had ruined some parts of the trail. As we neared our limit and turned around the evening cooled, freezing the snow into a crusty ice track, similar to a bobsled run. This made our beginning skiing efforts all the more comical. Neither of us was hurt, but it wasn't for lack of vertical challenges. I fell a total of four times before I removed the damn skis and walked sown the final 1/8 mile. Karren just looks like she was born on the sticks and only fell once. It is difficult to learn how to ski when the trail limits your ability to do anything but fly down a narrow gully two feet wide that is solid ice. Next time we'll wait for new snow or we'll finish earlier before it refreezes.
So, back to the job search. I haven't heard anything from ISU about the position I applied for there, but the HR dept. says it will take some time as the entire population of Latvia applied for the job as well. I also have put my apps into the federal govt. for various park service related jobs and have had a nibble. Hopefully I'll have an at least an interview soon. The local highway dept. office is hiring a position too, so I have a grossly underqualified app filed with them.
I have been contacted by my first private lesson (trombone) student, but I'm afraid I may have scared his parents off with an exhorbitant fee structure. I may have to adjust for regional economic conditions in order to gain any traction with teaching privately. But I CONTINUE TO PERSEVERE! I will not give up and become a groveling, whiny little pig. There is a job situation out there somewhere, and I will find it and make it my own. Something's gotta give - this 3:30 AM wake up schedule is ridiculous.
So, next time I will report on the snow storm that appears to be developing tonight. Hopefully it will lay down enough snow to furnish our skiing addiction enough powder and we'll be too busy to blog for a while. Or it could be that we'll finally run out of firewood and have to resort to burning money in the basement for heat. That would make for one cold house, let me tell you!
Next installment: Death by Downhill, or Tim gets hired as a mattress tester! Hard work, but somebody's gotta do it...
(P.S. What we are doing is really backcountry skiing, but not many people know what that is, ergo the cross country label)
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