Mary and I got our lessons on Saturday. After meeting up with Diana, John, and Kathy we strode the wonderfully groomed trails out to KYSO rock. The weather was still beautiful and we ate lunch looking out over the lake - which you can't see in this picture but it's off the upper right corner of this photo... Download this photo of Diana, Kathy, Mary, and John sitting on KYSO rock, facing away from the camera (6k jpg 3rd pic, top row).
I took another shot of KYSO rock looking up the hill at the corner of mount Rose. In this one, you can see everyone's faces - including 2 or 3 people to the left of the shot whom I don't know... Download this photo of John, Mary, Kathy, and Diana sitting on KYSO rock (9k jpg 4th pic, top row). I took another group shot for no particular reason (9k JPG 2nd pic, top row).
The next day (Sunday), it was about 15 degrees colder. When we stopped to re-arrange our equipment, Mary managed to separate herself from her hands - leaving them behind, in the straps of her ski poles... Download this photo of Mary with no hands. (8k jpg 1st pic, top row).
The rest of the photos are of various spectacular views of the lake. John and I struck out on some of the advanced trails with plans to meet Kathy and Mary at a picnic table that was accessible from an intermediate run. Half way along a particularly long and pleasant downhill stretch, I took a shot of the Nevada side of the lake. We didn't manage to find the picnic table that was shown on the trail map, but we did get to another overlook. John tried to go out to a little bump of snow so that I could take his picture with the lake in the background. Instead, he did a lovely "face plant" into the snow (6k jpg, 3rd on the bottom row). If you look closely at this shot, you can see the tips of my skis at an odd angle - I was laughing so hard at John, that I fell over too and had to take the picture lying on my side in the snow.
In this next shot (5k jpg, 2nd on the bottom) I tried to capture the storm clouds that were moving across the lake towards us. The last two shots are from KYSO, just before we hid behind it to eat our lunch out of the wind. If your put the left and right photos (9k and 3k JPG files, 5th on top and 1st on bottom) together, you get a panorama of the lake from the rock.
The temperature had dropped to 37 degrees by that time, so we decided to go home. We just barely got through Donner Pass before they started "chain control". We stopped just outside of Auburn at Ikeda's for chicken teriyaki burgers. Bob gives them 4 stains (out of a scale of 4) - check it out the next time you're on highway 80! They also have a very large grocery stand where John picked up a big bag of pistachios.
One person described cross-country skiing to me as "jogging in the snow". That's a very accurate description. But It's a lot more fun than jogging - I don't jog, not ever! I think we'll be doing this X-country ski thing again sometime soon...
Later, Bob.
Click here to return to my homepage. Read what the critics are saying about this page! You can also see photos of our Berkeley barbecue. Or, try my list of favorite web links. Checkout our hike in the Sunol Regional Park. See the housewarming party at Kully's and Brian's.
"Snow loads of fun" / Bob Baylor / bmary@netgate.net
