Our Alaskan Adventure Part 1: Denali

2013 - My sister and her family move from the somewhat far-away town of Boise, Idaho to the even further away city of Anchorage, Alaska. Our initial thoughts were “Sweet! What a cool place to live. We can't wait to visit.” The Wandering Woodmans now had a reason to head to the 49^th state. We could head up there any time. We knew it was far, but we could probably drive it, right? I mean we drove 24 hours straight once. What is it...2...3...? 60. Hours. 62 to be exact. So, to break it down, that's just five grueling 12 hour days. Each way.

No thanks. 

Half Dozen of Another

So, flying it was for our gang this time. No big deal. A plane ticket to Alaska couldn't cost that much, right? They don't. One plane ticket doesn't. One is quite reasonable, actually. We total 6. And 6 of anything isn't cheap.

No problem, we said. We'll just pick a date, save some money, and make a plan.

So, a couple of years go by, and we finally accomplished the first task. We picked a date.

“Good enough,” we said.

And just like that, we were off. 
To the land of the midnight sun.

Hello, Drivers

After saying hello to our Alaska family, we set off on our first great Alaskan adventure: Denali.

The National Park bearing it's name just happens to be celebrating it's centennial this year.
So to honor that, here is our Denali story.

By the numbers.

100 of them to be precise. 
 

Which, once I finished this, turned out to be way more than I imagined. Writing 100 of anything is a lot. So, it's a long read. Be forewarned. But, like a true Alaskan, just hunker down and bear with me...

► 20,301: feet above sea level is the elevation of Denali, making it the highest point in North America, and 3^rd highest peak in the world. 
► 1896: The year a gold prospector named the peak Mt. McKinley, after then presidential nominee, William McKinley, because of his support for the gold standard. 
► 0: times McKinley ever set foot in Alaska, let alone saw the peak bearing his name. 
► 2015: The year the peak was justly renamed Denali. 
► 0: people not related to McKinley, and not from Ohio (his home state) cared about the name change. The locals have always called it Denali. 
► 3: different native translations of the word 'Denali' we saw written.
The Great One. The Tall One. The High One. Whichever the translation, safe to say it's pretty big. 

► 30: percent of travelers to Denali actually get to see the mountain at all. Because of weather patterns and cloud cover, on most days the summit, and often the whole mountain itself, are not visible. They snobbishly call themselves The 30% Club. 

Every stop along the way was like a postcard

► 70: Percent of travelers miss out on this beautiful, grand, snow-capped, once in a lifetime experience. They do not joyfully refer to themselves as The 70% Club. 

►  130: miles is the drive from Anchorage to Denali 

►  4: hours was all it took us to make the enjoyable and picturesque drive. 

►  3: days we spent, total, on our Denali adventure. 

►  1: day driving up, stopping along the way for views of the mountain. 

►  15: magnificent hours in the park on our second day. 

►  1: day driving back, stopping along the way for views. 

Still looking...

►  0: times we saw the mountain.

 At all. 

Not once, even a little. 

 

►  100: percent chance we think being members of the 70 Percent Club sucks.

►  1: CD just happened to be in the van we borrowed and drove up to the park. There were scarcely any radio stations and no cell service once we left Anchorage. 

►  3: times we listened to Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volume 2. Which turned out to be... 

►  3: times too many. 

►  823: small coffee shacks dot the side of the road on the drive. All shapes and styles. Lots of coffee. Espresso... Americanos... Everywhere. At least I think there were that many. I couldn't see very straight. Too much coffee, I guess.  

►  6 million: acres is the size of Denali National Park. Or roughly... 

►  9375: square miles. 

►  5: states are smaller. Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, and New Jersey 

►  400,000: people visit the park every year. 

►  6: different languages we heard spoken by tourists among us that day. Indian. Mandarin. Japanese. German, Austrian and French. The groups were very multicultural. 

►  4: months the park is open to visitors. From mid May to mid September. That's it. 

►  1: way and only one way leads in. Denali Park Road winds through the park as it approaches the mountain. It meanders and twists and turns for... 

 ►  96: miles. 

►  0: cars are allowed to drive the entire way through Denali. In order to preserve the wildness of the landscape, and avoid traffic nightmares (we're looking at you, Yellowstone) the park has always been mostly traffic free. Instead, there are only park-run buses that take you into the park. They stop whenever wildlife is spotted, as well as making scheduled stops. 

►  8: hours total we spent on said shuttle bus 

►  0: times we thought the park felt 'too crowded'. Even being crammed on a bus full of people for 4 hour stretches didn't make us feel that way. Perhaps it was the vastness of the park that made it feel uncrowded. The place is the size of Switzerland, after all. 

►  66: miles into the park we rode, to the Eilson Ranger Station. Which was only...

►  33: miles from the summit of Denali. 

►  2: hikes we went on while in the park. The first, was just a short... 

The Summit Gang

►  1: mile trail. Straight up, this one mile. Apparently. To the top of Thorofare Ridge. The trail took us... 

►  1000: feet up in elevation in just under that mile. Which is a lot. We know now. 

►  6: of us started the hike. 

►  3: of us completed the summit. In the rain. And wind. And cold. We persevered. 

►  0: views of Denali could be seen from the top of the ridge. In case you missed my earlier point. 

Whew!... There. See? That went quick. Over a third of the way done already... 

►  5: animals, known as 'The Big Five' frequent the park. By no means the only animals in the diverse and wild landscape, these are just the ones that most people come to see. Bears. Moose. Caribou. Dall Sheep. Wolves.

Mama grizzly and her cubs

►  2: types of bears inhabit the area. Black bears and Brown bears (grizzlies) 

►  500-550: total bears live in the park 

►  14: bears we saw that day in Denali. (all grizzlies)

►  10: of the bears we viewed from the bus. 

►  5: of them were cubs. Freaking adorable! 

 

►  3: bears walked along a river gorge, a mama and her two cubs, as we descended in to it on our second hike. We watched them the whole way from above. By the time we got to the bottom, they were gone. But, once we returned to the top, we noticed they had closed the trail we were just on, due to 'dangerous bear activity'. Oops!

►  300: yards is the recommended distance one should keep between you and a bear. Bear encounters are no joke here in Alaska, and the anticipation of running into one was never far from our minds. We fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) never got closer than that to any bears. Needless to say, we still carried... 

►  2: cans of Bear Spray (think really strong pepper spray) with us at all times. It is only meant to be used as a last resort. Basically, as the bear is getting ready to eat you. Then. The better strategy is to make lots of noise at all times, so you don't sneak up on a bear. They hate that. 

►  200: times the kiddos sang the same few Girl Scout camp songs. Loudly. Over and over and over. So the bears could hear us coming. 

►  0: other situations exist when it is ever considered acceptable, outside of this one time, to encourage this kind of behavior. We not only encouraged it. We sang along...Loudly... “One more time!!!” 

►  1760: total caribou live in the park. Usually in herds. Unlike most animals, both the male and female caribou have antlers. Babies too. 

►  24: caribou we saw that day, including a bull with a super sweet rack of antlers. 

►  86: wolves occupy Denali National Park. 

►  10: packs of wolves, specifically. They are the most monitored and tracked creatures there, and their numbers are closely watched. 

►  0: wolves we saw that day. Tough to see them when there's only 86 in 6 million acres. 

►  1,500: moose reside inside the park's boundaries. They are the most plentiful of the large mammals, not only in the park, but also throughout all of Alaska. Basically, as common as seeing a deer in Missouri. Really, not that big of a deal. 

►  0: moose were observed by us that day. Shockingly. 

►  1,700: Dall sheep live up high throughout the park. Usually on cliffs or ridges. They loom above, high enough to keep away from the numerous predators below. 

►  3: Dall sheep we witnessed from the bus. At first they just looked like little white dots on the cliffs, but once viewed through binoculars, we could make out their signature curled horns. 

►  2: sets of binoculars we had with us that day. 

►  6: sets of binoculars was the correct number we should have had with us that day. 

►  55: mm lens is the longest our camera is capable of shooting with. 

►  300: mm lens would probably be the minimum needed to get close up pictures of some of the wildlife. 

►  0: percent chance we were gonna tote around one of those giant zoom lenses. We saw several people who did. No thanks. Wide shots are just fine by us. 

►  39: total species of mammals call Denali home. Not just 'The Big 5'. We got to see a plethora of them throughout the day. Tons of adorable Arctic ground squirrels. So cute, they make me hate Missouri squirrels even more than I already do. Which is a ton. I really hate those guys. They suck. We also saw an even more adorable Pika (think tiny rabbit/mouse) scampering along the side of the road. 

►  160: total species of birds live in Denali. 

►  2: flocks of Ptarmigans walked along the road during our drive. These fat, furry chicken-looking creatures are also Alaska's state bird. 

►  1: magpie walked along with us for several minutes during one of our hikes, squawking and yelling at us the whole time. 

►  3: people in our group already squawk enough for the whole group. Thanks, magpie. 

►  0: species of reptiles live in the park (or in all of Alaska for that matter). It's too damn cold. 

►  1: species of amphibians manages to survive in Denali (and also all of Alaska for that matter). The wood frog has adapted to the cold winters by figuring out a way to go into a deep cryogenic state. When it gets cold, the frog changes the chemistry of it's blood, and then literally freezes solid for the whole winter. It then thaws itself out when spring rolls around, and is good to go. Weird, right? 

►  0: ticks. Anywhere. 

►  0: mosquito bites. For us. 

► 2: huge points for Alaska, coming from a family that lives at the intersection of Tick Avenue and Mosquito Drive.

► 65: degrees Fahrenheit was never reached our entire excursion. It never even got close to that. It also never got colder than...

► 48: degrees Fahrenheit. That didn't mean the weather was perfect, however. Far from it.

► 4: layers of clothes we wore that day. Everyone. Minimum. Short sleeves. Long sleeves. Jackets. Rain gear. All were critical.

► 253: number of times we took our clothes off, put our clothes on, took clothes our off, put our clothes on... The weather changes frequently and drastically. It's hot. Its cold. It's wet. It's curiously all of these things at once sometimes. We had to be ready.

► 1: National Park in all the United States has a working dog sled team as part of its crew.

► 35: sled dogs are living and working in Denali National Park right now. We stopped at their kennel to get some dog loving time in, and watch a demonstration of what they do.

Ain't no party like a dog sled party

► 25-50: miles a day the dogs will travel, in the winter, pulling a sled, and doing valuable work throughout the park. These sled dogs are more than just a show for us tourists. They have played a critical role in the history of the park, and continue to do so today.

► 3: percent excited was all the dogs got when visitors walked around and petted them.

► 100: percent excited the dogs got once the rangers got the sled out for the demo. They clearly loved to work. Or hated us. Both reasonable.

► 2: nights we spent at our nearby accommodations, the Grizzly Bear Lodge (a last minute score!) which overlooked the Nenana River.

► 1: giant pile of moose scat lie underneath our balcony. It was probably just a typical sized pile, but it sure looked big. Side note: scat is a super fun way to say 'poop'.

► 0: moose were spotted from our lodge balcony. 

► 10: o'clock at night, with the kids asleep, I sat on that balcony, and started watching the sun set. The sky was orange. The light was perfect.

► 12: midnight.

► 2: hours later. I'm still up. Still on the balcony. The sky is still orange. The sun, is somehow, still setting. Only now it's further along the horizon. The light is also somehow still perfect. Longest. Sunset. Ever. I finally go to bed. 

► 2: food trucks were parked at the lodge grounds: a Thai food one and a Mexican food one.

► 100: percent of our meals came from those two trucks during our stay. Two of our favorite types of food, and as a bonus we got to introduce Haley to Thai food. She loved it!

 

► 1: place we actually stopped and had a real sit down meal. On the return drive to Anchorage. The waitress immediately informed us the kitchen was out of...

► 3: items on the menu. Nope, make that...

► 4: items. OK, are we ready to order? Hang on. Now there are

► 5: items the kitchen is out of. Ready? OK thanks. <5 minutes later> Oh that thing you just ordered? Guess what? It's now the number...

► 6: item we are out of. 

► 8: swirls of soft serve was the maximum number you could get at the ice cream place next door. A mandatory stop, so I was told. Which, as it turns out, 8 was the perfect number for me.

There it is, or rather, there it should be.

► 3: more times we stopped at alleged 'scenic views' to maybe, just maybe, crawl out of the lowly, commoner stink of being a 70 Percenter.

► 0: views. Once again. For those of you that are just skipping around and not really seeing this thing all the way through.

► 100: percent chance that you will fall in love with this majestic, amazing place. We sure did. Even if you are destined to be just an ordinary 70% member, it's OK. Embrace it. We are coming to terms with it. And yet we still managed to love Denali anyways.

Thanks for hanging in there till the end. I guess it could've been worse. At least it wasn't their bicentennial.

Boston Strong

In 1897, just one year after the success of the first ever modern day marathon, they held the inaugural Boston Marathon. Ever since then, the 3^rd Monday in April has been as special one for the entire area. Since its inception, the race has coincided with Patriots Day, a huge state wide holiday. Now, I had always heard about Patriots Day, a day set aside to honor the Revolutionary War battles of Lexington and Concord. I knew what it was. At least, I thought I did. I just never realized what it was actually like.

The Woodman family name is an old and established one in that part of the country. In the early 1600s, one particular Woodman, Edward, sailed from England to the colonies to help establish a new town in Massachusetts. 

For generations since that Woodman's arrival, and others as well, the family name has grown throughout New England. There are Woodman's all over. One of the family's claims to fame is the invention of the fried clam. People drive for miles in the New England area to make a pilgrimage to Woodman's and enjoy fried clams made from the family's original recipe. Three and a half centuries after Edward Woodman came to Massachusetts, his 10^th great-grandson (me) was also born in the area, in nearby Connecticut. Three years later, my dad took a job in St. Louis, and just like that, my days as a New Englander were over. Fate had decided that I would grow up as a Midwesterner, instead.

My sister Kelly is a running machine. She always has been. I'm not totally sure, but if someone told me she's was part robot at this point, I would probably believe them. Marathons for her? “Whatever.” Iron Man Triathlons? “No biggie.” Oh while you're at it, go ahead and pop out a litter of kids in-between races... “What else you got?” 26.2 miles to Kelly is like .2 miles to the rest of us mortals. Second nature. Dare I say, easy. So, it came as a surprise to no one, when she announced she would once again be one of the 30,000 participants in the Boston Marathon. Her third straight year running the race. No sweat.

What a difference 30 years makes.

After moving to Missouri, we visited our family back East sporadically. My Dad's only brother and his wife lived in Massachusetts. I remember when each of my two younger cousins were little. We saw them a few times, as kids. But, now, as an adult, I had only been back twice. Both times for each of my Grandmothers' funerals. Both visits were brief. I hadn't kept up with my East Coast family at all. Not really, anyways. An email from a cousin, here, a Christmas letter from my Aunt, there. I knew what everyone was up to. But that was about it. My only two cousins were adults now. They were both married and had started their own families. And I hadn't spent any real time with any of them in over 30 years. This year it would be different. This trip would remedy that.

To say that Boston embraces the marathon and Patriots Day is a vast understatement. We were not prepared for the amount of love that flowed from spectators that day. The race is a point-to-point one, meaning it has 26 miles to wind through the entire city. And all along the route, some 500,000 people cheered the runners on. Half a million. Picture that many people. The Boston Marathon ranks behind only the Super Bowl as the largest single day sporting event in the world. And these fans weren't just casually standing around, or using the day as an excuse to hang out and drink on a Monday. No. They were fully vested in the race. Cheering everyone on. Really cheering. Everyone. From the very beginning, when the elite leaders ran by (whose names and splits they all knew) all the way until the back of the pack passed hours later. People genuinely cheered. They shouted out people's names as they ran past (many runners wrote their own names on themselves somewhere.) Like real fans. “Go Jerry!” “You rock, Alice!” The entire time. They cheered. For runners. It was so great. So unreal. Boston loved this race. It was their race. And they showed it.

My cousin Christine and her husband Saul graciously offered their house up to us, for our visit. Offered is the wrong word. Insisted is more accurate. "OK...but our gang can be a handful,” I warned. With Kelly and her oldest son (Sebastian) staying there too, they assured us, “We'll make it work.” Right from the beginning, they did so much more than that. Saul, my newly-met cousin-in-law (is that what you call them?) treated us like we were guests on the Promenade Deck, and he was our cruise director. The slightest bit hungry? Here's some amazingly delicious food Saul just showed up with. Not hungry at all? Here's a box of mouth-watering cannolis that Saul ran out and grabbed. Totally stuffed? You can't be. There's more coming. More different kinds of local beer. More desserts from other bakeries. More. More. More. We wanted for nothing. Saul was our own personal concierge. “You need to go to this place,” he instructed. “And when you do, you gotta eat this.” So we did. We listened. We followed his advice. And we all left with our pants a little tighter.

Kelly struggled in this race. And when I say she struggled, I'm using that term loosely. Struggled by her robot-humanoid standards. Not by any sane person's standards. She hadn't trained at all. (Who does that?) And I mean not at all. A couple of injuries had kept her from running even once, leading up to the race. “Hopefully I won't have to walk the whole way.” she declared. She didn't. Even being unprepared, was only a slight challenge for her. Her body still knew what to do. Maybe her battery backup finally kicked in. But she willed herself on.

There was no struggle for us and my cousins. Everything came easy. Right from the start, it felt like we had known one another always. We had, I guess...technically...known them that long. Just with big gaps in between. But the gaps didn't show. Ever. When my other cousin Emily and her family joined in, nothing skipped a beat. It felt like all we did was hang out and shoot the breeze, pretty much our entire stay. There was no awkwardness. No disinterest. We all clicked. Like a real family does, I guess. Except, we hadn't spent enough time with them yet to have all the stupid baggage that normally gets in the way with families. No, with us, it was just the good stuff. We laughed. We told stories. Some old ones. Some new ones. We discovered shared familial characteristics (like our Grandmother's snore!) It was more than we had hoped for. It was perfect.

We know about them now.

Even better than hitting it off with my cousins, was watching the girls get to know their second cousins. Their connections were immediate and real and pure. They played a lot. They laughed even more. They had "sleepovers." They cried when it was time to leave. At one point Nina exclaimed joyfully, “It's like we had this whole other family that we never knew about.”

 

When Kelly stopped and chatted with us at our spot around mile 18, she seemed to be in an upbeat mood. After all, she was running in the greatest road race in America, and she got to share it with her family. She didn't seem to mind that her quads were killing her. She didn't seem to care that she had to walk as much as she did. I have to imagine that just competing in that event is an amazing experience. Every time she did it. Half a million screaming fans. That would never get old. Kelly finished the race in 4:34:22. Not a great time by her (own insane) standards. Parts of her ached, and other parts flat out hurt, but her body willed her on. She endured. She ran well. It shouldn't have surprised anyone. She was a runner, after all. She has been forever.

The day we left Boston, I found myself trying to make sense of what had happened. Why was I feeling so euphoric? This had been the first time, as an adult, that I had hung out with my family like this. Not counting my parents. Not counting my in-laws. Not counting my litter of kids. The rest of the people I shared my DNA with. The East Coast Woodman's. I hadn't had any real connection with any of them at all. Up until now. Yet, somehow we were still connected. We had a commonality. That thing you share with people you are related to. That thing that makes you alike. Your genetics. You souls. Your being. Whatever it was. It was there. Here was this bond that I had discovered, that I didn't even know I was missing. We all melded together seamlessly. Perfectly. I don't know why it surprised me. It shouldn't have. We were a family, after all. We have been forever.

"That whole other family" (L-R) Joey, Nina, Nadia, Sebastian, Jaxon, Zara, Norah, Georgia

New Year, Old Friends

"Pink Pony" (as signed by Nina & Elise) with Seb as the pony.

The Christmas season had ended, and it was time to start thinking about our journey eastward. Our time with family was the perfect way to spend the holidays. The girls were sad to say goodbye to their cousins, as this was, by far, the most time they have ever spent with them in their lives. Everyone got to know each other a whole lot better on the trip. I think we all feel much closer to our Idahoan family. So, we packed up, and headed east.

Bye Bye Boise family

Originally, our plan was to swing through Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming on the route. Yeah, ummmm.... have I mentioned recently that we aren't mountain folk? The only way to access most of Yellowstone in January is with a snowmobile, or a giant Sno-Cat. Our Honda Odyssey is neither. We weren't really aware of how snowy and cold it is there. It is. So, the beauty and splendor of one of our country's greatest parks would have to wait for another trip. We'll catch you next time Old Faithful.

Alpine Tramps

So, what now? Where to spend New Year's? We wanted to head east, so Colorado made the most sense. We called up our good friends the Rummel-Winfreys, and headed to the mountains near Boulder. Missy is another one of Jenny's longtime and dear friends. We've traveled up to their place in Colorado several times over the years. It would be a perfect place to celebrate the New Year.

Fozzie and friends.

The girls got to play with their friend, Luka, while Clark and Jenny got to hang out with some of their favorite people. We all stayed up till midnight, banged pots and pans, and screamed down the mountain.

New Year's Day we spent in Nederland, one of our favorite little mountain towns in Colorado. We stuffed our bellies full at the Indian buffet, then took a ride on the super cool, hand-carved carousel.

It was a great way to ring in 2014.

'Ned' as it's called by locals.

Happy New Year!

The Other Side of the Mountain

We're not mountain folk. That has been shown to be abundantly clear. It's not our fault. We're from the Midwest. There are no mountains in Missouri. Not real ones, anyways. Those things down south are not real mountains. Real mountains have snow and ice. They have switchback roads. Temperatures change quickly. It's not our fault that we don't understand things like elevation change. No one in St. Louis knows how high up they live. We don't understand things like weather inversions. We have no concept of how grade % works. We've learned the hard way that driving through the mountains takes some extra preparation. Extra planning. And doing it, at night, in the winter, well that's just stupid.

Even though some of our encounters with the mountains had humbled us, we weren't going to let them beat us. The mountains are also a place of fun and adventure in the snowy winter months.

We were going to take full advantage of it.

800 feet of fun

First up, snow tubing at the nearby Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area. The five of us, plus the two oldest Driver kids headed out for a fun filled Christmas Eve morning on the mountain. The tube run was 800 feet long, and fast. Really fast. Too fast, apparently for the people working there. After the first few runs, they shut the hill down for awhile, and churned up the snow with a giant Sno-Cat in an attempt to decrease speeds. It was still pretty fast. The kids raced down in their covered inner tubes. They went down holding hands. On their stomachs. On their backs. A tow rope pulled us back up to the top, making the whole experience easy and fun. Everyone had a blast.
Well, almost everyone. Nadia refused to go down the hill. “I don't like fast things” she proclaimed. “But, we already bought you a ticket, dear” we pleaded with her. We begged. We coaxed. She remained undeterred. Off to the warming tent for some hot cocoa instead. Jenny and Clark took turns waiting with her, and occasionally drug her around in her tube.

She couldn't hold back her inner big girl.

Eventually our session time was coming to a close. Time for one last attempt at getting Nadia down the hill. One last ditch guilt trip. “Fine.” she utters reluctantly, yet with some certainty. Before she could change her mind, she's off, down the hill, holding her Poppa's hands tightly. She was right. She didn't like it, But, she went. So the day was a success.

The Tubers

Next up, was a trip to the Gold Fork Hot Springs up in the mountains north of Boise. The weather was icy and frigid, but the mineral water was toasty and perfect. All the kids really loved the sand covered bottom of one of the pools. The adults obviously loved the healing waters too. You couldn't get out of the water for more than a minute before parts of you started freezing over. Ice chunks in your hair. Your suit turned into a stiff board. So, since there was no reason to get out, we didn't.

Five hours later, we were all in heaven.

"I want to live here" stated Nadia.

"So do we, dear."
"So do we."

Our final weekend in Idaho was spent up in the mountain town of McCall. A travel destination, McCall is jam packed with outdoor winter sports activities. The Driver family all knows how to ski, so we opened it up to our family if anyone was interested in learning. Nina was the only taker. She has always been an adventurous one, so it shouldn't have been a surprise. So, Clark, Nina and some of the Drivers headed off to Brundage Mountain Resort for some downhill fun.

A natural.

We got there bright and early so Nina could get a private one hour lesson, and hopefully get her skiing. Her instructor was super nice, and apparently Nina is somewhat of a natural. She mastered the main hill on 'Easy Street' pretty quickly, and wanted to try her luck on a big 'Green' hill. Clark took the big lift high up the mountain with her, and attempted what they called a beginner hill. It was steep. Too steep for a novice like myself and a first timer like Nina. So, we walked. Down the mountain. There was no other way down. It sucked.

 Back to the easy hill for us, which was just fine. Nina worked on her speed. She prefers going fast, not back and forth. She also mastered one called 'The Roller Coaster' which involved some fast hills, embankments, and several places to wipe out. Clark did. A lot. Nina did not. In just one day on skis, she was already better than her old man. Not surprising.

The rest of the gang, (Jenny, Norah, Nadia, the rest of the Drivers, and Boots the dog) tromped around McCall on snowshoes looking for places to go sledding. Nadia, of course, would not be excited about this, so she got the royal princess treatment. Sitting in her sled, she was drug around on the snow all day. The group trudged along, stopping occasionally and checking out sled hills. The snow was thick. There were no good runs established anywhere.

Norah decided to switch to cross-country skis, and loved it. She spent the day swishing along snow covered roads. After many failed attempts at sledding, they headed back to the car, to call it quits. Right down the road, they saw a group of sledders. A perfect spot. Fast. Long. And ending on a frozen lake. Great sledding soon followed. Even Nadia got in on the fun, laughing and giggling the whole way down. They even hooked their sleds up to Boots, and he pulled them down the hill.

 While we may never be mountain folks, at least we can play like them.

Boots earning his keep