Earlier this week it snowed a couple of inches. At first it felt like a bit of a slap in the face from Mother Nature; things were starting to thaw around here and I was just recovering from the emotionally jarring and unsatisfyingly abrupt end to our skijoring season, looking ahead to (and forward to) busting out the scooter.

I got up a couple of days later preparing to take the dogs for a morning cani-hike, but couldn’t stop eyeing the persistent thin snow cover in the backyard. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that this stuff is skiable, I thought. It wouldn’t hurt to just put the skis in the car, right? I thought. Well you can probably see where this went. I did end up going skijoring one last time cap off the season. It was wonderful and terrible, a little bit forced and maybe not the best decision I’ve ever made, but it definitely put a more satisfying end on the season.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, and we had a good time. When we arrived, it was early enough that the snow was actually in very good shape and we saw a few other die-hard skiers heading out. But over the course of the next 30-45 minutes things warmed up enough to turn the snow into a sticky mess of uber-friction. Sure, it was a good workout… in the way that a forced march is a good workout. By the end were all so exhausted and punchy that I was more than ready to admit it was time to leave skijoring behind for the season.

I admit I wasn’t very strict about staying on task because we were all SO tired, but I have to say aside from some occasional trailside distractibility on both their parts my MPs held it together well. They had this nice LINE OUT, which I am happy with.

And they did great here. The ends of that bridge might as well be made of dog pee, but despite being almost at the end and being very tired, they made me proud here by going right on by both ends (you can see how I even grab the line as we come over the far end in anticipation of shenanigans).

In other news, around the house we are keeping busy during this mushing limbo doing some trick training. These backwards leg weaves are challenging and a little bit out of my comfort zone, so it’s a good exercise for both of us. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to put these two pieces together to achieve what I would like to ultimately be a backwards figure eight, but I’m very proud of my polar bear for this:

We’ve been in the thaw-refreeze cycle now for a few days and the whole world is covered in ice and/or crusty hard snow. We won’t make it up north this spring until well after the lakes ice-out, so this was well and truly our last hurrah of the 2013-2014 skijor season. But I’m ok with that now, and pining for snow-free (I’ll settle for snow-freeish) trails for the scooter. Say goodnight, skis, we’ll see you next year.