What do you take for granted?

by The Philosophical Fish

What do you take for granted?

We feel grateful for our friends and families, perhaps for the jobs that we have, the pets we come home to….but sometimes we forget to look at the environment around us and be grateful for where we live and what it offers us.

I feel lucky to live in a place where I have easy access t places like this, at little to no cost.

All you need is a way up to the base, winter clothing (though nothing terribly heavy needed today), and a pair of snowshoes. If you choose to visit the trails on Cypress at Hollyburn, it’s only $12 for a ticket to wander through a winter wonderland on well maintained trails that criss-cross back and forth across nordic ski trails. The trails offer terrain for every level of experience, the higher terrain more challenging and generally less populated with many snowshoers, the lower trails easier and busier.

We tend to go high. I’m a bit antisocial.

On the way back down we took what was probably the more difficult way, and our hips and knees were complaining, and probably will tomorrow as well. We were both grateful there has been a pretty good dump of fresh snow in the past week, it wasn’t icy, which made going down some of the steeper sections a little less exciting.

We stopped for a couple of photos and Kirk planted his poles….discovering that the snow was deeper than he realized 🙂

he last time we were up here was about a month ago, and it was far, far, busier. The farther we get into the year, the more people stop thinking about winter sports, and that sits fine with us, because it’s still absolutely fabulous up here 🙂

As we took the photo above, we heard a voice and turned to see a woman making her way down the hill on nordic skis. I felt for her, it was obvious she was new to the sport and discovering that challenges associated with going downhill on skis that are only attached to your feet at the toes.

I’ve never loved country skiing because I learned to downhill ski before I ever got on nordic skis, but our family still did it, and I managed, even if I thought it was never nearly as much fun as the alternative. On the flat, or going uphill, was fine, but when I had to head down…. the natural snowplow that I’d slip into to slow down just never worked well since one’s heels move out, but the skis don’t follow easily. More than once I stopped myself by simply sitting down or flinging myself into the nearest snowbank.

To say we were concerned for her knees is an understatement.

Today was a good day.

119 Photos in 2019 – 92. Something that you take for grantedLocal PlaygroundA little deeper than it lookedAlmost doing the splits

6 comments

Balaji Photography : 6.5 Million+ views March 4, 2019 - 2:01 am

Added this photo to their favorites

Reply
Bruce82 March 4, 2019 - 3:14 pm

A few more lessons needed? Never done it myself so miles better than me.
Seen in
119 pictures in 2019

Reply
linda_lou2 March 5, 2019 - 12:37 am

Added this photo to their favorites

Reply
hapsnaps March 7, 2019 - 11:20 am

Oops!

Reply
Missy2004 March 7, 2019 - 6:26 pm

That looks painful.
Seen in
119 pictures in 2019

Reply
sure2talk March 7, 2019 - 7:24 pm

That would be me if I ever tried skiing again – it won’t happen though, once was enough. I found it terrifying not being in control of my legs! ?
Seen in
119 pictures in 2019

Reply