SwedishChef's Journal: Damn... I miss Winter

It's amazing how quickly one can be addicted to a specific activity. This winter, even with a low snowpack, I managed to get dependent on cross-country skiing. Even to the point of getting "skate" skiis only to have the season end abruptly before using them. The question now is, "Can kaykaking take the place of x/c skiing?" Well, for adrenaline there is nothing quite like hearing the sound of rapids around the next river bend but not knowing quite what is in store for you until you can actually see them. Ok, maybe landing a glider (one shot, make it good).

Cross-country skiing offers little in the way of adrenaline rush but it is satisfying on so many levels. There is the athletic level where you learn new techniques; there is the conditioning level where your body goes farther every weekend; there is the aesthetic level where you come around a bend of the trail and are presented with a view of snow-covered mountains and valleys with frozen lakes and blue sky and clouds and are struck dumb with the beauty of it all.

Yesterday we partied in Wenatchee during their Apple Blossom Festival, eating teriyaki in the park and listening to some friends perform in their rock band. We had gone up to Cashmere to watch kayaks play on Granny's Hole and we had roller-bladed for a couple miles on the riverfront trail system. It was a pretty satisfying day.

I'm new enough to roller blades so that it doesn't take much to give me a workout so that part was great. Watching those guys and gals play on a wave (one using over-sized mitts in place of paddles!) was fun because even though I've surfed on a river, there is no way I can do what they do on a wave. But I'm thinking that with both kayaking and roller blading I might just be able to hold on to some physical conditioning this summer.

Anyway, I feel pretty good about yesterday. And less than three weeks after getting out of the hospital for appendix surgery I'm out and physical. Yes, Virginia, there is life after 60. :P