Cross-country: winging it

On Friday I stopped by MEC, just to see if my skis are ready, and sure enough, they were.  That meant that I got a sudden itch to head out and try them out.  I was expecting the Nordic Centre or Mount Shark to have snow, but nothing that's skiable yet.  Moraine Lake Road was my only option, and a great into.  I covered 7km in 1.5 hours - surely no speed record, but no wipe-outs either.  It was nice being there; even though there must have been 50 cars at the parking lot, everyone was spread out and I was mostly on my own.  By going along this road slower, I saw more than I do when driving along it.  Before, I had never noticed Paradise Creek, nor that nice vista of Temple.  I'm already excited for more outings on the skis (especially the Great Divide, Lake O'Hara, Mount Shark and PLPP areas), as this has all of a sudden opened up a lot more terrain to explore.