Cross Country Skiing
This past weekend the family and I headed east to Bear Valley, California for an awesome winter vacation with lots of snow, good friends, and great conditions for cross-country skiing.
For me, this was my second time to Bear Valley. The first time we camped up the road by Lake Alpine during the Bear Valley Triathlon. I didn’t participate in that tri, but my wife did. The area was gorgeous, and the cycling was awesome. I took a ride up to the Ski resort, up around 9000 feet. It was incredible, I didn’t even see one car that whole ride.
The second time we went to Bear Valley, we decided to do Ski trip. I don’t do downhill, because I don’t want to do anything that could impact my ability to ride my road bike. But cross-country skiing has some appeal for me. We stayed in the Lodge, which is super old school, but the great room is a fantastic place to just hang out and recover.
The first day we went out, it was about 60 degrees and sunny. I fell in love with it. I haven’t ever done any form of exercise that I liked anywhere near as much as cycling, but this gets close.
I was able to get my heart rate up to over 150 xc skiing for around 3 hours. It was an incredible workout. I pulled my son behind me in a Polk sled, it was fantastic. I can’t wait to do it again.
Bear Valley is a great place to to for an exercise vacation for the entire family. If you have kids, there is something there to challenge everyone.
