Iggys Excelent Adventures
Today is my birthday, it took me two tries to type birhtday. I've been drinking Ommegang Abbey Ale, tasty. So let me tell you about my weekend adventure to VT. Since i've been drinking at least now i have an excuse for mispelled words and grammer errors.
Saturday morning me and Mary headed up to VT, Bennington actually. On the way up we stopped at Browns Brewery in Troy. They are a sponsor for Battenkill, I've had there beer before and when its your bday wknd you call the shots.
This was a great place to stop for lunch. Oatmeal Stout on tap for $3.75 a pint and the food is good( I had the Oatmeal stout and browns ale). I highly recommend this place, if your on your way to VT or Bkill stop in...its on the way.
We stayed in Bennington at the Best Western, $100 a night with breakfast and a clean room, good deal. We checked in then headed to Manchester to walk around and check out the outlets...the kinda shit you gotta do to keep the wife happy. It was not real cold so this was enjoyable to walk around from store to store. We got hot chocolate at one point so that was fun, then we got Thai food. Not bad for Vermont, food is never incredible in this state...your better off sticking to a burger or cold sandwich.
After drinking too much beer that night I got up in the middle of the night to take a leak and get a drink of water. In the bathroom was a cup with water in it, so I drank it. Turns out those where Mary's contacts in saline solution...the good thing is I only drank one of them.
Real VT...bonerbonerboner.
The next morning we went to Prospect Mountain to XC ski. This place was only 7 miles from Bennington and I've always heard that this is an awesome place to xc ski. Let me start out my saying that this place lives up to its reputation. Prospect Mountain is an old dowhilll ski mountain dating back to 1935, it went exclusively xc in 1991. This place has a nice mix, punchy uphills, twisty's, wide open downhill to tuck without fear, 20 minute climbs...By far this was the best place I've ever skied.(High Point,Minnewaska, Mohonk, Grafton, Mt. Snow) As I passed other skate skiers on the trails we just gave a nod with an ear to ear grin...the conditions where that good. Such a different feeling then passing a roadie on the bike. Looking at my Garmin proves my love for this place, highest HR on Skis, fastest avg...it there was a fun meter it would be off the charts. Yes I'm going back at some point this season, this is real xc skiing.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/454364235
Beauty and the Nordic Iggy
I did give Mary an hour lesson on xc ski's while at Prospect. She has gone xc skiing before but being outdoors in 10 degrees is not really her thing. I must say she was better at dowhills then Soundz. After an hour she was shot and let me race around skating for 2hrs. Afterward we stopped at Man Of Kent on the way home. This is another must stop-in when going to or from VT. Great beers on tap and the food is good. I had the Browns porter and Fullers ESB on tap. Its funny how I can remeber what I drank but I can never remember what I ate.
Its my bday and I'll XC Ski if I want to.
Today I was supposed to downhill ski at MT Creek but they didn't get any new snow and my buddy told me it was real windy up there. We postponed the skiing for later in the week when its warmer and sunny. I went into work and was happy to see 2-3" of fresh snow. This was just enough snow to skate on, although I did find grass underneath on occasion that seemed to pull the rug out from under me. I found some good holes with a snow pack base so I didn't bottom out. This was no Prospect Mountain but any day you can skate ski on your birthday is a good day.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/454825841
There is a sound that fresh snow makes when sking on it...as a xc skier this is one of the best sounds you can hear. You can hear my phone going off towards the end, listen for the cricket sounds.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73360835@N06/12915727643/
Except poles................