Playing in the Snow

Greetings and a very Happy New Year to all the Roamsters’ readers! I do hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that 2009 is off to a roaring good start for you.

My apologies for not writing for so long – and I really DO have a million different topics to catch up on, all the way back to the last portion of our August / September road trip during which we did some absolutely excellent hiking in Oregon and California. Then there were 2 fabulous southern B.C. and northern Washington camping trips that we took with our friends David and Pam late in the season .

I NEVER want to be that cold again.

So this spring, we plan to buy a small (VERY small) T@B RV and do much more road-tripping. Ed hasn’t seen nearly enough of this province and I’d love to see it all over again. Too, if the budget allows it, we’d like to have a mural done on the side with the Roamsters.com logo and link… which means we’ll have to get a logo. That way you’ll know us when you see us… so WAVE! Better yet, flag us down and feed us!

Anyway, my excuse for not writing is that we’ve been playing in the snow.

I put in a request on my birthday to the powers that be for snow (that’s ALL I wanted) and 2 days later it started – in earnest. And while you already know that we get lots of snow here in Canada, the large amount that we’ve received here in the Okanagan Valley so far this winter hasn’t been seen for about 40 years. Usually, it snows and melts the same day.

Ed admonished my failure to put a definite amount on my request, but all I can say is THANK YOU! I’m SO loving it. Of course, I CAN be happy about that, because I don’t have to drive in it unless I want to – talk about the benefits of having a home-based business!

To celebrate, we’ve been out hiking, cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing in the local area almost everyday. On Christmas Day, I skied lake-to-lake. And I love not dirtying up the environment by driving for an hour or more just to find snow to play in.

But as all good things must come to an end, the big melt started yesterday, so it’s time to get back to work and with that, I’m leaving for Lost Wages (Las Vegas) tomorrow morning to speak at the Affiliate Summit conference. I’ll be blogging from there on my business website, NetProfitsToday.com.

In the meantime, here are a few more snowy scene photos that I’ve taken over the last 3 weeks. Enjoy!

Cross Country Skiing at Sun Peaks

After leaving Penticton around 8AM, Ed and I got to Sun Peaks Resort just after 11. Not bad considering it’s winter in the mountains and I’d fretted over the possibility of bad winter driving conditions since we planned this trip with Carol and Andrew at Christmastime. Fortunately, other than a few miles of fog east of Merritt on Highway 5 (Coquihalla), the roads were basically bare, dry and beautiful. Even the drive up Tod Mountain Road from Heffley was completely bare, much to my relief!

After grabbing a quick bite to eat in the Mantles Bar over at the Delta, checking into our room at the Coast Sundance Resort and meeting up with the kids for a few minutes, Ed and I beat a hasty path over to the Activities Center at the Day Lodge to get our cross country ski passes.

I’ve had only one episode with a chair lift and never planned another, so when the girl at the desk told me that we could take the chair lift up to the trails, my response was “there’s a chair lift involved?!!“. I was delighted to then learn that there were trails on the valley floor getting on and off the chair wasn’t a requirement.

Sun Peaks Resort boasts 28-km (17.4 mi) of perfectly groomed trackset trails and 12 km (7.5 mi) backcountry (ungroomed) trails, making it difficult to choose where we wanted to head on our first day out. We finally settled on the McGillivray Lake trail which is a dog-friendly green trail that goes out to McGillivray Lake and the warming hut there. We skiied directly out from the covered bridge at the Coast Sundance, passing the Morrisey Express lift, crossing 2 roads (a pain in the butt) and finally got onto a gentle uphill most-of-the-way out to the Lake.

Other than one skate skier, we saw no other cross country skiiers on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon in late February, which was completely amazing considering how beautiful the trails and snow were.

Instead of completing the loop, we turned back at the cabin and enjoyed a nice, quick and easy downhill tour back to the village. Our total route was approximately 12 kilometers, and but for the groin muscle that I sprained 10 minutes into our foray, it would have been a perfect ski.

Our friend Damon joined us the second day on which we tackled the steeper Great Gray trail outbound to the lake and skied down the McGillivray Lake Trail back to the village. Despite being an absolutely PERFECT day to ski with clear blue skies and above freezing temperatures, there were very few skiers on the trails. Awesome!

You can see more pictures from our Sun Peaks adventure and learn more about Sun Peaks resort.