Wonderful West....

Two and a half weeks later....still in West Yellowstone. You might think "Aren't you bored yet?" but I'm really glad my plans worked out as they did. With no great skiing in New England yet, being in Montana this long has been awesome. The skiing here is great, if not perfect. Yes, the first week was very busy with an astonishing number of racers and master blasters taking to the trails, but when Sunday of that first week came the town emptied in literally a number of hours. These last two weeks I've seen fewer than ten other skiers on the trails each day. This weekend we have our first NorAm (North American) Cup races here in West and after three weeks of focused training and a couple of xc ski races, I am ready!

Now....pictures! Because I know that a blog without pictures is probably one of the more boring things to look at!

West Yellowstone Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center

Today Seth and I visiting the wolves and bears that reside at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. They had two packs of wolves and a bunch of bears. The bears are rotated in pairs into a display area so that they have privacy for a good portion of their day. 

They had a lot of educational information displayed for us to read. Here Seth shows just how big a wolf print is compared to his own hand!

Seth eyeing the wolves from the safety and warmth of the building. It was really neat to get so close to them while still feeling that they were actually far enough away!

And the bears.....

Sam and Illie were rescued in Alaska as cubs when their mother disappeared and they wandered into a populated area and began taking food from humans. They are twins however Sam weighs in at 1050 lbs. while Illie is just (haha) 800 lbs. Those are some BIG animals!

Sam hunting for some food hidden in their pen....

Illie following her nose toward an afternoon snack...

They also had an indoor display building filled with educational information. 

Seth posing next to a stuffed polar bear...it was HUGE!

And the biggest bear in the whole place.....

And now for some skiing pictures....because that was why I came here!

Melissa and I are all smiles on a sunny (but cold) day at the range...

Got my race face on in Bozeman....

Photo shoot for Mt. Borah, our new clothing sponsor...

Leading the charge in our new suits....

Look at that spiffy gear...THANK YOU MT. BORAH!

Check back for another update soon with (hopefully) pictures and results from our first races this weekend! And then it's off to Minnesota on Monday! 

West Yellowstone! Skiing in sunny, snowy Montana!

Sorry for the delay in posts....my last few weeks in Maine were very busy before heading out here to Montana. Lots of training and lots of equipment organizing took up the majority of my last days in Fort Kent. I headed out here to West on Sunday, staying the first night with my relatives in Belgrade, MT (just outside of Bozeman) at their ranch at the base of Ross Peak.  

Ross Peak Ranch where I stayed with my dad's family for my first night in Montana....an absolutely amazing place. 

In the morning I went out with Chum, my dad's cousin, to help feed his cows: scottish highlanders. 

One of the bulls....sporting some seriously impressive horns. 

Another of the boys....another set of impressive horns. Despite the appearance, these guys are gentle giants. They'll come right up to you and visit. 

When Chum feeds his herd he rigs the old farm truck to drive itself across the pasture while he off-loads the hay bales from the flat bed on the back. 

Head down to the lower pasture where the "girls" are....

The ladies eating breakfast....

Looking back toward the ranch from the lower pasture....

Early sunrise on the day of the sprint races here in West....

I made my debut as a waxing tech, helping Will get skis ready for everyone's classic sprint races. Here Will gets things going early before the craziness ensues....

One of my teammates heading out in the skate sprint on Wednesday afternoon...perfect conditions and beautiful weather. 

The biggest hill on the trails: down on the left and right back up it on the right. Check out the view into the distance too! This hill was on both loops of the 10k skate race that I did today....rough but I think I've skied up worse! 

All smiles...sun, snow and sweet new ski attire! Thank you Mt. Borah! 

The next few shots are from my drive up to Fort Kent after visiting home for a week at the end of October. My mom and I took a break to enjoy the sun and gorgeous lake view. 

I promise to take more photos soon but posting them is tough right now as I forgot my camera-to-computer cable. (Yes, my computer is old enough that it doesn't have a memory stick port) When my biathlon teammates come on Monday I will get my cord though and then there will be many more pictures on a much more regular basis. Until then, THINK SNOW!