Boxing Day

Heckman Pass Snow Gauge today 2 feet

The last 10 years or so for our family on Boxing Day usually means we go to the East Branch Ski Hill for a little family day.  It's a tiny local ski hill with a handle bar tow.  It's kind of fun though because it's in Tweedsmuir Park, it's in the Chilcotin Plateau and it's almost always beautiful there with lots of sun. Usually all the kids who are away at places of higher learning, and other kids who have started their own lives and come home to see Ma and Pa, usually end up at the ski hill on Boxing Day.  Unfortunately this year for the first time in quite a few years there wasn't enough snow to open the hill, there is only a base of about 70-80 cm and we need a bit more to cover the more 'rugged' pieces of our hill.  We did something pretty fun though which was to go down the road another 5 km and take part in X-country skiing.  Another group of hard working loyal volunteers keep up to 30 km of trails all groomed and in top shape.  So far they only have about 5 or 10 km of trails worked out, again because of low snow and small lakes with overflow on the ice happening.  Still it was a nice day,  we each took turns XC skiing on our two pairs of XC skis while the other two snowshoed on two pairs of snowshoes.  The snowshoeing was brutal, 2 feet of soft snow and you went right through right to the base.

It was good family day though I could tell.  I drove home by myself while the other three people and the dog all napped in the truck!  Grizzly