This weekend I had a glimpse of life after school on a xc ski trip to Montana. Our traveling group left on a train from Portland Friday evening and the next morning we arrived in Essex, MT at the Izaak Walton Inn.
When I told friends about the trip before leaving this is how the conversation went:
AA: I’m going skiing in Montana!
Friend: Where in Montana?
AA: Essex, Montana.
Friend: Aaahhh…Umm where is that?
AA: I don’t know.
Now I understand that no one knows where Essex is because it is a town of 30 people that is not really a town at all. Essex is just a cement platform where the train drops people off who are going to stay in the Izaak Walton Inn. The train tracks are literally a few hundred yards in front of the Inn.
The Inn consists of a couple floors of rooms, a restaurant, a lounge with fireplace, and a full bar downstairs. After skiing and then warming up in the sauna everyone settles into the cozy chairs by the fire to read, tell stories, and rest tired muscles. Last night the fireside scene was bubbling along when a couple people started coughing, then the people next to them started coughing, and next thing you knew the entire room was cleared out. Not a single person in the hotel was safe from the scratchy throat, watery eyes, gasping for air syndrome also known as bear spray accident. We discovered that a woman had bear spray in her backpack which somehow sprayed and temporarily poisoned everyone in the lodge. It took at least an hour before everyone stopped coughing again and before a few people drifted back into the lounge area. Aren’t all of the bears hibernating right now?
I don’t have any skiing pictures because the rain has kept me from bringing my camera out onto the trails. But, the ski trails are awesome! After three consecutive days of skiing I am gliding along quite gracefully on the flats, cruising up the hills, and almost surviving the downhills. If I had my snowboard I would be just fine, but I never learned how to downhill ski. Today I discovered that my Sporthill ski pants have a lovely water resistant butt patch which doubles as a built in sled so I can slide down the steep slopes on my butt. This technique is fun and much more graceful than my attempts to ski down the steeper stretches of trail. I will try to get some photos tomorrow to prove it.
On a completely different topic–this Thursday I have an interview for the nurse-midwifery program at OHSU in Portland! I was told that they had 60 applicants for 10 spots this year so I am thrilled just to have an interview. Wish me luck!
AlexAnn
