Endless Winter

It's hard to go a day without someone talking about how long this winter had dragged on. Started this post before the big storm hit central and southeast MN on Thursday...wow, what a crazy April!  Just a few inches up here today but the past week has seen snow every day and there is more snow this week than there was a this time last week! We have had 7 months in a row of snow! Fargo has been breaking records and the more moisture that adds to the snowpack and lack of significant melting this spring so far could make things interesting in a few weeks if it warms quickly. Last year the unusually warm spring made good headlines for the warm weather being connected to global warming. This spring the global cooling folks are licking their chops. It's almost comical to read both point of views and some of the claims. There are charts showing global warming and charts showing global cooling and polar ice cap increasing.

Last year at this time, the trails were free of snow and we were mountain biking on the trails. As of today, there is still 1-3 feet of snow in the woods. However, fat biking has been a total blast with the top layer of the snow pack turning over to a crust that makes it possible to go anywhere. I have been fortunate to hit it a few mornings and the surface is like slickrock found in Moab, UT.

 Even the singletrack has been rideable cold mornings when everything has frozen down hard. Mile marker one pretty much buried. Is going to be mid to late May I am guessing before the trails dry up proper.


 
 One morning the crust was absolutely perfect and the ski trails were like paved paths making for incredible fun. Especially on the smooth groomed trails and the up and downs of North Loup ski trail.

 Jonell and I have been skiing more together this month than the previous 5 months combined!I put Jonell through some pretty interesting conditions last year during 30daysofskiing so nice to have top notch conditions.

 There will be days that are absolutely stunning and the thinking is there will be no more like it but we keep experiencing surreal days the third week of April.

It's one thing to be able to skate ski late in the year but to have classic tracks such as last weekend when you could say it was "mid winter" in the morning has been awesome.

 Wildlife has been acting funny trying to figure out what is going on. Jonell saw this beaver coming home last night and it would not move. Geese and swans have been on the trail near water areas coming back to the nesting grounds and the deer are still in herds with groups of 70 seen in the fields near Callaway.

 

 When we had a few days of melting  the water was flowing and filled a low spot near our house. Froze down hard again and was possible to skate and play a little hockey. A year ago we were mowing here! The lake is still covered with snow and if conditions melt and freeze right, I see lake hockey in May!

Even humans are acting funny. Not sure how this guy got his car to do this.A recent trip to town saw a guy running around in his underwear outside, multiple people stumbling in the parking lot of the grocery store apparently under the influence of something.

Cranking out another ski deep in to spring. Goal is to ski in May!!