It’s not a secret that winter lasts a long time in Practically Canada. The cold and snow blows in around October and doesn’t leave until the rest of the country is knee deep in spring. {Last year we had one final blizzard in the middle April.} This winter we are a little wiser to the ghastly tricks of PraCan. So, to stop ourselves from going stir crazy in the Polar Vortex we took a little stay-cation to Lake Metigoshe with one of our couple-besties…the Kelleys.
Lake Metigoshe is about two hours north of Minot {also where I shot that breath-taking wedding last fall} and covered in snow. Our cabin was plenty big for the four of us, the water smelled and tasted like pure rust {we bought our own from the store across the street}, but that didn’t matter. We had skis, board games, and a TV with cable so we could watch non-stop Olympic coverage.
Ideally, we would have rented snowmobiles along with our skis, but they were all checked out. So we were forced to watch others zip around the lake from our windows.
The weather was perfect. Highs above zero, and wind chills above zero to boot. It was ideal for getting out and taking a long ski through the woods, even though one person in our group said it was “…all the boring parts of snowboarding, except on skis.” I won’t mention names, but I will say that 3 out of 4 really enjoyed the cross country experience and 1 out of 4 chose to have a good attitude about it anyway.
If you are wondering, the trails at Lake Metigoshe State Park are wonderful. There are warming houses along the way, so you can ski a few miles, then come in to thaw. We did a total of 6.5 miles and ate lunch in the warming house, which had a wood burning stove-thingy, which kept us nice and toasty.
On Monday we went down to Bottineau Winter Park, where Derek and I did a little downhill skiing and the Kelleys went tubing. {Because Katie hates downhill.} The tubing was advertised at “Two hours of total bliss.” She assured me that it was just that.
The weekend definitely broke up the monotony of the long winter, which–if we are lucky–will only last a couple more months. If you are feeling cramped, bored, or stir crazy check out my list of 40 things to do this winter. It’ll help break up the time.
