New Traditions

This is the first Christmas that my mom has lived out of state and J's mom and dad have snow birded. This is also the first Christmas as a married couple. Since times seem like they are a changin', we decided to do something completely and utterly different this year on Christmas Day.

We decided to rent snow machines up in the Snowy Range area and drive up to the cabin! Sounds like a great adventure, doesn't it?! Well, it was one of the best Christmases I've had as an adult, I must say.

We woke up and were ready to roll at 730 on Christmas morning. The couple we usually travel with met us at our house for the ride over to Albany. We rented two touring snow machines at the fun and friendly Albany Lodge which is located about 30 miles south of Centennial, Wyo where we were married.

We started our snow machining trip from Albany and took the trail that led us past Rob Roy Reservoir and headed to Hwy 130 via the Libby Flats trail. The trek across this icy tundra was the coldest and most windy part of the trip (2 hrs one-way). I was a little peeved because I thought my snow boots broke because my dang feet were FREEZING! I had 3 layers on underneath my coat, but the wind easily cut through the fabric and iced up my skin. Also, this was the bumpiest (did I spell that right) part of any of the trails. I almost got bucked off plenty of times. Later when I asked J if he heard me screaming for dear life, he said he thought I was just having a good time. NOT!!! Well, it *was* fun, but it wrecked havoc on me poor back.

Here we are taking a break right in the middle of Libby Flats' icy tundra wind tunnel! Don't ask me why we stopped in this god-forsaken area or what I was doing with my arms! Heh, heh, I think I was adjusting my balaclava between my helmet & coat:

Once we got past the Libby Flats Lookout and turned left on Hwy 130, we saw the Range in all her glory. ((GASP, GASP!!)) She looks more lovely, larger & closer to the road and more foreboding in the winter than when seeing her in the summer. I was amazed to see one of my favorite places in the world wearing a different season than I was used seeing. She wears winter like a royal majestic cloak and reigns supreme through the stormy clouds. I love this place.

The drive to the cabin took a couple hours and couple trails (5 different trails to be exact) to complete. For an area I know so well, the surroundings looked so different that we drove right past the entrance to the cabin. Do you realize how hard it is to flip a U-turn on a snow machine on a tiny trail? Oy. Very.

We backtracked to the entrance of the cabin "neighborhood" and snow shooed about 1 mile in to our humble abode. Man, was that hard breaking trail in waist-deep snow! Thank goodness for our good friend Jeanne who did most of the breaking! What a trooper! We got to the cabin exhausted but warmed up from the work out that trompin through the snow provided. My feet finally warmed up so my boots weren't broken after all :), but I did get into my stash of clothes I left up at the cabin this past fall, donned on an extra pair of socks and two extra layers of shirts (1 thermal long-sleeved & a fleece hoodie) for the ride home. Jeanne had made & packed in some awesome turkey noodle soup and hot schnocolate (hot chocolate with schnapps & brandy. . .yuuuuuummm!) that hit the spot.

Here's me at the entrance to the cabin! Whew, I had never been so glad to reach a destination in my entire life:

Since the trek in took us longer than we expected, we had to hurry and close up cabin and get our booties back to the snow machines that we left on the side of the trail. Funny thing is that the trip back only took 1/4 of the time as going in because the trail had already been broken and we had some brandy running through our veins. We were good to go.

I took this picture from inside the cabin before I locked up as J was making his way back down the snowshoe trail:

We got back to the machines about 3:10 p.m. which was perfect timing since we had to be back at the lodge by 5:00 p.m. The air in the area had warmed up so the trip back found us enveloped in a light snow storm which was kinda scary but spectacular at the same time. Libby Flats mogul tundra pretty much sucked as much as it did on the first leg of the trip, but we made it through and got back to Albany Lodge at exact 5:00! We all had a beer in the lodge and reminisced about our day's journey before setting off to make the drive home.

Our round trip mileage ended up being 100 miles which is like driving a snow machine from Cheyenne to Denver. Pretty daunting task when you think about it. What an awesome day!! I hope we do this every year for Christmas. What a fun, adventuresome and invigorating way to spend the holiday. Come join us next time :) Kisses.