Making tracks

In my next incarnation, I will live in a more northern region that gets abundant snow—and this mythical place will come with folks who are adept at grooming the white stuff into perfect cross-country skiing trails. In this life, of course, snow is never dependable when I live and when it arrives, it is up to me to craft a suitable ski trail. That was my task today. First, I strapped on snowshoes and stomped down the foot-plus-deep powder until I had an oval track through the woods that was about a quarter-mile long. Then I repeated the process twice until I had something that approximated a route I'd laid out earlier in the year. The rough "carpentry" done, it was time for the finish work. I traded the snowshoes for skis and headed out to field-test and fine-tune my handiwork. The skis bit the powder beautifully and I was soon gliding along easily and happily. With any luck, I'll be able to enjoy this trail for a good, long time.