Location: Mt. Baker

Date: December 18th

Martin King posthumously gave Trav the day off school so we took advantage of the three day weekend and headed for the coast. Michelle and Mikayla went with us to Bellingham and we spent a couple of nights with Dani.  Saturday we took a couple car loads of bodies and headed up to Baker.  That's where I learned to ski in high school.  I hadn't been there since '82 and was really looking forward to skiing with my son there.  I hyped it up pretty good too, but I think my memories of the place have morphed a tad as it wasn't as big or as tough or as friendly as I'd remembered it.  We thought that since they have over a hundred inches of snow we'd find better skiing.  But the reality was that it was even worse than Bogus if you can believe that!  They've had so much melting during the days (I think it was in the mid fifties on the slopes) and it freezes at night leaving solid ice in places that should be nice and fluffy, or at least soft.  They're suffering from the same lack of snow that we are because they should have two or three times the snow pack that they have.  By mid afternoon my ice skating skills were wearing out and I sprung my knee a little on one run, but I don't think it's too serious.  We had fun visiting with my sister and her family though and I had few willing photo candidates: