Arrrghh - Reflections on Winter so far

I haven't posted for a bit. Unfortunately my trip to Kansas last week turned into a sick fest. After my swim in Wichita my sinuses went nuts. I stopped in Lawrence, KS home of the outstanding Free State Brewing, but was too sick to make it out the door for beer. I felt well enough to go for a roller ski the next evening but was sick again the following day. Roller skiing in Kansas, now that was interesting. In the Minnesota, roller skiing is tolerated. Enough people do it that to yell out every time "hey buddy where's the snow?" would quickly get tiring. In Kansas I got the feeling that absolutely noone had a clue what I was doing. I was also made greatful for all that 3 rivers park district does for us up in the Mpls area. They generally keep trails free of debris during the peak roller ski months and design trails that are relatively safe to use. In Kansas city the trails were full of little stones(which bring roller skis to an instant stop, the skier usualy continues at the same speed with the obvious consequence), and had some interesting curves and downhills.

Anyway winter so far has been a complete bust. I feel good about the skiing I have done, but have yet to get on real snow and have still to get really excited by skiing. I am in Iowa just now and it is pissing down rain, this time last year they had over a foot of snow down here and I had a great day skiing north of Iowa City. Things do not look good for getting any snow soon. For the last few years we have all wondered if the year would arrive when the snow just never came, we all know that this will happen eventually, skiing in the Midwest will probably not survive climate change but surely we can get a few more good years before it all ends.

Beer of the Blog: I had the distinct pleasure to have some Summit Great Northern Porter on cask this weekend. This is one of Summit's best beers in it's carbonated form, the cask just made it smooth.. Really easy to drink with a pleasant malty flavor and all the right chocolate notes. If you ever come across this at a festival, or if Summit follow through on their plan to offer cask beers to some bars, then this beer should be on your must try list.