The day started off at -12 F. Cold, but only just the beginning. We enjoyed a healthy breakfast in and relaxed a bit. We took a walk down the road to the nearest trailhead, popped on the snowshoes and headed into the woods for a quick jaunt. Nothing too crazy, but just enough to get our fix in the woods. I brought my DSLR and tripod along with hopes of getting a couple images. There was a mostly-frozen stream that paralleled the trail and I managed to get some images of that. Nothing amazing, but something to wet the whistle a bit.
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We had lunch at the apartment and I headed down to Mt. Van Hoevenberg for my afternoon skate-ski. Denise decided to hang in and catch up on some reading in lieu of skiing. When got to the ski lodge the wind was whipping and the snow was falling. The snow was very tiny dense flakes that almost resembled a mist. By the time I got out to ski it had calmed a bit. I made my way across the large stadium field towards the East Mt. Trail. The large puffs of my breath that eminated from my mouth resembled that of a large locomotive rolling across the plains.
The stiffness from the previous days exertion was very present and I pushed on with the hope that eventually it would go away. The cold disappeared on the uphills, but made its reappearance on the downhills. It was like I had just ingested a large bowl of ice cream very quickly and my sinus passages in my screamed for mercy. I retraced the previous days course with the exception of the Ladies 5k trail which I added this day. Most of it was closed, but it added an additional 1.5 miles. I stayed out the entire time, fearing that going in would cause much of my clothing to get wet with sweat and returning out would freeze up. I ended up doing about 9 miles in an hour and a half, which was plenty.
We headed over to Cafe Rustica for dinner. I ordered the Bruschetta appetizer which was a meal in itself. It also had a Red Pepper Hummus which was a nice addition. For dinner, I broke the rules a bit and had a pizza. I got a Magherita pie, light on the cheese, and added some Arugula to help oxygenate the blood a bit. All-in-all a good day out despite the cold. Supposed to be colder tomorrow, so I may need to make it a rest day.
