This weekend was a lot of fun. On Saturday morning, Tim and I woke up and started packing up for our trip. We made lots of ham and cheese sandwiches, filled every bottle and camelback bladder we own with water, packed the dog's saddlebags, packed our backpacking packs, and took a lot longer to get ready than usual. We were a tiny bit late, but we finally got all three of us packed into the car and we headed to Andrew's. When we arrived, we discovered that we had luckily all had late mornings on the same day. Andrew had woken up 5 minutes before we arrived, still drunk from the night before. We hung out in his apartment while he got ready and Navi stood outside the door looking in. After a bit, we packed up the car with all the skis, boots, poles, skins, and backpacking packs, and lots of food. Then we headed out for our grand weekend!
Chain control started pretty early since the mountains had 1-3 feet of powder dumped on them on Friday night, so it took us longer to get to the mountain. When we arrived, we let Navi out, and she immediately bolted to run into the snow. She's never played in fresh powder before, so she was a little confused when the snow was as deep as she is tall! She leaped around in the snow and had a blast. We changed into our gear, left her in the car with a little shade canopy made out of my fleece blanket, and started skiing! We skied all day at the resort, and around 4 we left and drove to a nearby snow parking lot. We packed up our gear, put Navi's saddlebags on, put the climbing skins on the skis, and started skiing in search of a campsite before sunset! We skied for a while and found a really nice opening in the middle of a bunch of trees that we all felt was safe. We tried to pack down a nice big circle with our skis, but as soon as we hopped off the skis we sunk into the powder. Thankfully, we didn't sink as deep as we would have without packing the snow down, so it was easier to walk around. Navi was having a blast, but her feet were really cold. Her booties didn't stay on very well, so Tim and I will have to redesign them to work a little better. We already have lots of ideas! She is such a trooper though so she is easy to take care of. We set up the tent, made dinner, and after looking at the stars for a while we headed to bed. Navi was wet, so even though she had a thermal insulation mat and a fleece blanket, she was a little cold. It took Tim and I a while to find all of the locations she was losing heat and figure out how to keep her warm, but she was a real trooper. She doesn't give us problems and realizes that we are trying to help her. Eventually she understood that she needed to sleep on top of her insulation mat so that the cold ground didn't steal her warmth. We put her legs on top of Tim so that they didn't fall off the sides of the mat. Then I opened my sleeping bag and covered her up too. I couldn't figure out why she was still shivering, so I felt every part of her body and I discovered that her tail was practically a brick of ice. She was holding it against her stomach, so it was hard for me to find and it was leeching all of her warmth. I moved it to a better location, got all the snow off, warmed it up, and after a while she stopped shivering and fell asleep. Tim and I snuggled on either side of her and we drifted off to sleep.
Morning came, and the four of us dosed for a while. When Navi realized that I was awake, she dived into my face to say good morning! She snuggled for a while, until she realized that Andrew was awake, too! She jumped over Timmy and shoved her nose into Andrew's face, giving him cold good morning licks! She really loves Andrew. Andrew slept on her for a while, and after a while we all decided to wake up. We put all our gear back on, made oatmeal and hot chocolate for breakfast, packed up, and started skiing around again! Navi's feet were hurting from the snow, so Tim left to put her back in the car for a while. Andrew and I skied around for a while, but I had a hard time on the downhills with the pack I was wearing. I got tired, so when Timmy returned, I decided to head to the car while Andrew and Tim skied, and take care of the dog's feet. I skied back and met a few other people with dogs along the way, which was fun. When I got back to the parking lot, I let Navi out of the car, and she wandered around meeting everyone who was in the lot. There were three guys in a pick up truck nearby who had just returned from backcountry skiing. They loved Navi and gave her lots of belly rubs and cheese. After a while, Andrew and Tim returned to the car, and the three men showed us their backcountry bindings and we chatted for a while. We dried the tent and fly off in the sun, and slowly packed the car up while Navi made lots of friends. Eventually, we headed off and drove home! I made chicken tortilla soup which really hit the spot, and after laying everything out to dry and cleaning up the kitchen, I passed out! It was a really fun weekend.
Chain control started pretty early since the mountains had 1-3 feet of powder dumped on them on Friday night, so it took us longer to get to the mountain. When we arrived, we let Navi out, and she immediately bolted to run into the snow. She's never played in fresh powder before, so she was a little confused when the snow was as deep as she is tall! She leaped around in the snow and had a blast. We changed into our gear, left her in the car with a little shade canopy made out of my fleece blanket, and started skiing! We skied all day at the resort, and around 4 we left and drove to a nearby snow parking lot. We packed up our gear, put Navi's saddlebags on, put the climbing skins on the skis, and started skiing in search of a campsite before sunset! We skied for a while and found a really nice opening in the middle of a bunch of trees that we all felt was safe. We tried to pack down a nice big circle with our skis, but as soon as we hopped off the skis we sunk into the powder. Thankfully, we didn't sink as deep as we would have without packing the snow down, so it was easier to walk around. Navi was having a blast, but her feet were really cold. Her booties didn't stay on very well, so Tim and I will have to redesign them to work a little better. We already have lots of ideas! She is such a trooper though so she is easy to take care of. We set up the tent, made dinner, and after looking at the stars for a while we headed to bed. Navi was wet, so even though she had a thermal insulation mat and a fleece blanket, she was a little cold. It took Tim and I a while to find all of the locations she was losing heat and figure out how to keep her warm, but she was a real trooper. She doesn't give us problems and realizes that we are trying to help her. Eventually she understood that she needed to sleep on top of her insulation mat so that the cold ground didn't steal her warmth. We put her legs on top of Tim so that they didn't fall off the sides of the mat. Then I opened my sleeping bag and covered her up too. I couldn't figure out why she was still shivering, so I felt every part of her body and I discovered that her tail was practically a brick of ice. She was holding it against her stomach, so it was hard for me to find and it was leeching all of her warmth. I moved it to a better location, got all the snow off, warmed it up, and after a while she stopped shivering and fell asleep. Tim and I snuggled on either side of her and we drifted off to sleep.
Morning came, and the four of us dosed for a while. When Navi realized that I was awake, she dived into my face to say good morning! She snuggled for a while, until she realized that Andrew was awake, too! She jumped over Timmy and shoved her nose into Andrew's face, giving him cold good morning licks! She really loves Andrew. Andrew slept on her for a while, and after a while we all decided to wake up. We put all our gear back on, made oatmeal and hot chocolate for breakfast, packed up, and started skiing around again! Navi's feet were hurting from the snow, so Tim left to put her back in the car for a while. Andrew and I skied around for a while, but I had a hard time on the downhills with the pack I was wearing. I got tired, so when Timmy returned, I decided to head to the car while Andrew and Tim skied, and take care of the dog's feet. I skied back and met a few other people with dogs along the way, which was fun. When I got back to the parking lot, I let Navi out of the car, and she wandered around meeting everyone who was in the lot. There were three guys in a pick up truck nearby who had just returned from backcountry skiing. They loved Navi and gave her lots of belly rubs and cheese. After a while, Andrew and Tim returned to the car, and the three men showed us their backcountry bindings and we chatted for a while. We dried the tent and fly off in the sun, and slowly packed the car up while Navi made lots of friends. Eventually, we headed off and drove home! I made chicken tortilla soup which really hit the spot, and after laying everything out to dry and cleaning up the kitchen, I passed out! It was a really fun weekend.
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