Streets of Saint Paul

I street skied twice today. In the morning I took the bus to work, with my skis. The snow came fast and hard, but let up by the time I was leaving. I also went grocery shopping and skied home with 25 pounds of food on my back.

It hurt. I kept switching shoulders, but it hurt. I stopped at the bank, which was welcome, and then to help push a car up a street. The skiing was okay, but without freshly-falling snow or much traffic to smooth out the "trails" it could have been better.

After dinner, I hit the "trails" again. It was better, with a bit of snow pivoting in to freshen up conditions.

Take six inches of snow, add some newly-fallen snow, subtract some traffic and a lot of groceries on your back, and skiing on the streets was pretty good. Some V2, and a lot of double-poling, about 10k. I crossed the Mississippi on the Lake Street Bridge (first time across the river on skis—adding to foot, car, train, plane, and paradoxically not boat) and found the roads in Minneapolis, the main roads, at least, plowed. What a novelty—they were not plowed in Saint Paul. The Town and Country Club was a bit to firm to skate or tele, but the streets home were good.

It will be nice to have 7-9 inches of fresh, firm snow groomed up tomorrow and this weekend. For now, though, an hour of double poling on the streets will suffice. And I saw a guy on a bike (!) who gave me a thumbs up, and later wrote me a Facebook message. Small world.