We had a new plan for our snow day. After our snow boarding attempt and sleepless overnight stay at last week's shelter, I had come home to do more research. Surely there had to be a better way for us to do some sort of free style iditarod dog snow hiking combo event! I can say that I have fully transitioned over to snow hiking mode and am all out winter now! Instead of avoiding snow, we are seeking it out. I remember that the last two winters Nova and I had been looking for trails just below snow line to keep hiking on. We would do 3-4 snowshoe trips the entire season and maybe a couple easy snow hikes. But we preferred to stay out of the white stuff when possible. Well that has all changed now that this Arctic Wolf has joined our family. We have fully embraced the snow and can't wait to get out in it while praying for good powder! Every single week since pretty much November has found us in the white stuff! As we started out on this hike both girls were really wound up and ready to roll for sure!
The plan today, however, was going to involve a new sport. I had read that something called Ski-Skating has been taking Europe by storm and they want it to be the next Olympic Winter sport. This is essentially a cross between ice skating/rollerskating and skiing. You can do a lot of tricks on these mini skis once you strap them to your feet. They are smooth on the bottom with two shallow metal rails on each side. Now, I also read that most ski slopes in the U.S. have banned these because they consider them too dangerous and a liability. But they seemed like the perfect solution to me! They are short and I can face the dogs when they pull. They also allow both feet to be separate and not bound onto the same board. They are light weight and easy to pack. Ski Skates were checking all my boxes. But, keep in mind that I have never been on skis in my life and I only tried ice skating once and was terrible at it. I found that it did not come naturally to me at all. But I remembered that growing up in the 1980's I really took to rollerskating, so figured that would be my slam dunk way to Ski Skating! I also read that if you are using them more on cross country trails and not groomed slopes, that you should keep them waxed to prevent snow sticking to them. I think that might have been my first mistake. Waxing them for our maiden voyage put me right back into my new favorite position on the trail....flat on my back.
Nova had that look on her face again. The "are you kidding me that we are doing this again" look. She can be so judgemental sometimes! Josie was eating snow as usual as I lay on my back trying to get air back in my lungs. We had been hiking about 5 miles before I even attempted to strap these guys to my feet. The trail had been steeper than I expected as we combined two separate 5 mile loops into a fun 10 mile snow adventure. I waited until after we had eaten some hot food and emptied my bladder before strapping the ski skates to my boots. Instead of our usual hot soup or chili today, I had gone with cream of wheat in my thermos. A little strange, even I will admit, but it hit the spot for all 3 of us on the cold day. The air was extra crisp and cold today and we had blue sky and even some sunshine! It all seemed so perfect. The snow had a thin layer of ice over the top and the trails were mostly groomed for both cross country skiers and snowshoeing. I was full of nervous anticipation when I put the skates on. I regretted it almost instantly!
Almost as soon as the bottom of the ski skate hit the snow it flew out from under me. In fact standing seemed almost impossible! If I moved at all, they would fly out from beneath my legs so fast that I couldn't even get my arms out to catch myself and most of the time I landed flat on my chest. This was unlike the snow boarding adventure that would put me in the splits or on my back instead. Normally this would not be a big deal, but it was almost that time of the month for me....so the ladies reading this will understand....it was very, very uncomfortable to repeatedly land flat on my chest! But I kept trying to get the hang of moving in them or at least get my arms out to catch myself in the sudden falls. I so regretted waxing them!! But then I also regretted my trail choice for their maiden voyage. You see, I had seen this sign when choosing my trails for this adventure, and thought to myself, what could be more perfect for someone who has never skied a day in her life to try out some banned piece of ski equipment on most U.S. slopes on this, the most difficult of trails!!
That is what I call mustard seed faith! I knew God was wanting another good laugh today...so it just seemed meant to be and a perfect Amy, Nova and Josie adventure. We don't always make the wisest choices on the trails, but I always say that the worst choices make the best stories for us to laugh about later. The hills and sharp corners almost did me in I can tell you that. The ski skates rode on top of the snow nicely. It was such a strange sensation to slide back and forth with my feet on the snow, but I learned I could stay upright easier if I glided rather than trying to walk in them like snowshoes. So once I got that motion down, I told Josie to go ahead and start pulling. She stared at the skates for a long time trying to figure out what they were.
Despite having been very excited on the trail earlier in the today, once these were on me, Josie was very hesitant to start pulling. The ski skates slide so fast and effortlessly that she kept stopping and staring at my feet. The sudden stops and starts from her were surely not helping me get use to this new mode of transport! Eventually the trail we were on came close enough to a snowmobile route that I decided to switch over to that path instead. This was a road that was very well groomed from all the snow mobiles that had been on it and, although steep, seemed a bit more manageable than the trails we had been on. Once we hit a fairly flat section, I found my ski skating groove! I learned that it was much easier to keep my balance if I kept one foot ahead of the other and not side by side like I had been trying. I also found it easier to lean back just a bit as Josie pulled me forward. Strangely I also learned that I had to hold my right arm out to my side and up in the air like a bull rider. I cannot explain that, but I fell anytime my arm was not in full cowboy mode. So knowing that I looked stupid, but that there was no audience, I held my right arm out above my head and used my left hand to hold the leash tying me to the bull.....aka my pulling Wolf. Thank God there were no humans there to witness this! I am sure I looked like a five year old from how jerky my upper body movements were. I had to really work at maintaining balance and for some reason that all came down to my upper body jerking backward and forward and twisting right to left just to keep upright. At the time I thought all my pain during this was just in my hip, knee and broken toes, but later I realized that my back muscles got the brunt of the workout, leaving me in pain for days in an area that does not usually feel pain from merely hiking! I realized that the 1980's were a long time ago and my easy rollerskating days were a distance memory for my now much older body.
While Josie stayed in front of me pulling, Nova insisted on following close behind. This was a wise choice because Josie kept pulling a dead stop in front of me. Since I had not yet figured out steering or stopping on the ski skates, when she stopped I would ram her from behind. The first time my skates undercut her back legs, but then each time after that I found that I could part my legs just enough to come on either side of her (without doing the splits) and then flop my upper torso over her fluffy back to stop. I think she thought this was funny because she kept pulling up to a dead stop to make me do this over and over, giving her a back hug each time. It was all part of the learning experience though.
After gaining in a tiny bit of confidence, we came up to a steep, smooth hill. After a brief pause, I decided to give it a go. How bad could it really be I thought, while wishing I had brought my trekking poles for extra balance and steering. All was going well.....my stiff body still jerking to maintain balance of course......but I was standing upright and dare I say skiing?? Suddenly though, as we were descending, I came to the terrible realization that I was passing my iditarod pulling Wolf!! Everything turned to slow motion in an instant. I could hear the blood pounding in my ears and nothing else. I slowly turned my head to the right to look at Josie as I passed her. At the same time, she slowly turned her head to her left to look at me. The look of shock and dismay in those steely intense green eyes was surely reflected in my own brown ones. I am sure that I even saw her lower jaw drop just a bit as I passed on by. It was once I had passed her that I realized I really did not know how to stop these things. I racked my brain to remember what the manual said. Oh yeah, I thought, it said to stop ski skates you treat them just like hockey skates. This was my second mistake of the day. "Why did I not google how to stop hockey skates!" I almost cried out loud. I've never worn hockey skates in my life. Stopping them meant nothing to me in that moment. I was gaining in speed and knew I needed to do something and very soon. While my world was still in slow motion, another thought came to me. What is Nova doing right now? If only I really did have eyes in the back of my head! I became aware that there was no drag against my waist from either of the leashes tied to me. So either both dogs were running like the wind or they had given up and were sliding with me. I still do not know which and they are not talking. Eventually I did what every reasonable new skier does, and I implanted myself into a snow bank along the side of the road to stop. I took the ski skates off and we took a well deserved break.
It was funny that then trying to walk without skis on, felt completely unnatural and like I had sea legs. But we ended up hiking our way out the final miles to the snow park where I left my truck. It was soon getting dark, but the sky was turning a beautiful pink in the process. In fact as the sky became pinker, I became aware that the snow was turning pink all around us. What a beautiful end to our adventures for the day I thought. I looked up at a sliver of a crescent moon above and thanked God for such a great day. Even Josie took a moment to appreciate it as well.
Although that was right before she decided she wanted to chase the only passing snowmobile we had seen all day! I tried to explain that there was a human on that thing and she wouldn't really want anything to do with him, but she liked how fast it seemed to "run" from us for sure. It turned into a real fast run out to the snow park from there as she just had to chase the snowmobile to find out. Thank God I had taken the ski skates off by then. They will surely take a lot more practice to become proficient on them. I have some training ideas for next week though that I can't wait to try out. I believe we are on the cusp of wolf snow pulling while snow hiking perfection. I just might need to strap Nova to my backpack like a Doggie Baby Bjorn though.
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