The Great Circle Tour

Two contrasts on the highway - from Az. to Colorado to back to the Bay area.....fantastic scenery of pink bluffs into the flat high desert. Not so flat after all. We managed to escape the
the wave of storms that were flying across the country but still hit snow flurries, hail and just freezing cold. When we left the Bay area, we were swaddled, bundled in layers and slowly the car took on the appearance of a winter strip joint as we peeled out of the fleece. Az. was very warm and going north we rooted through the pile of fleece, now covered in a layer of dog hair, and piled it back on. We roasted, though at 9k plus feet of altitude near Breckinridge on spring snow, forgetting that we would be burned and worn out from the altitude. Altitude, not age. Unh huh. The Salt Lake Basin did not seem as oppressive as when I was there years ago, and there were good memories of skiing up the canyons at Alta and Snowbird. But Robert wanted to make tracks, so off we went to S. Lake Tahoe, where there were more good memories.

We used to have access to a house at the Keys, and ski all over the Tahoe basin, in great early winter snow and then with spring, the Sierra cement. Snow this spring just kept falling, ice kept icing and the dogs loved the whole experience. I just tried to not think of age and effort at altitude and wondered at times, just whose idea this was.