Chasing winter, you just might lose the race

The other day, my family ended up at a restaurant having arrived in two different cars. When it was time to head home, one son rode with me, the other with Sally. My co-pilot son, as soon as we were out of earshot, told me to get going and beat them home. Unfortunately, they had a way faster path out of the parking ramp and would be unbeatable.

Wouldn't you know it, when we arrived at the one possible optional turn on the way back, they were right in front of us at the stoplight. They went one way and we went another. "High risk, high reward," I told my son as we headed out. "If the stoplights work for us, we might just pass them."

Well, the stoplights were against us, and we lost the "race." (Is it a race when the other participant doesn't know it's a race?)

We are up in Ely for the week. Normally, especially this time of winter, you head north for the snow and the cold. But Ely had a stretch of warm days last week that turned the ample snowpack into crust. And as we were leaving Duluth, a major storm was dumping snow on the Twin Cities and even on the outskirts of Duluth.

We chased winter all the way up here, then winter went the other way. We skied at the Hidden Valley ski trails yesterday and it was okay, not great, with a dusting of poofy snow packed into crusty trails.

Yet...it's not like we "lost" anything coming here.

It is still deep in the season here. The snow is two feet deep at least. I had the most amazing wolf-pack, wolf-howl experience ever, with a pack of wolves just a few hundred yards from our cabin howling away. The stars are bright and the birds at the feeder are wild creatures and Ely is, as always, Ely.

This winter still has a long way to go. Forecasts call for colder than normal temps through early March. I hope all those North Shore and winter fans in the Twin Cities are enjoying their next round of winter. I'm definitely enjoying mine.