National Park Bum: A Quick Ski and walk

It was the second time skiing this winter and I had no idea it would have been the last. Missy came and visited for the night from Helena. Hours before she left we made a trip to the upper terraces. I skied that three times in the winter of 2013 and it had been almost a year since the last time I walked the upper terrace boardwalk as well.

We made our way past angel terrace going up the hill passing a mother of five. Many of the kids were having a blast and then she warned us that many more may be coming down uncontrollably. Two kids zipped by with smiles on their faces and then in the distance a cry was heard. As we skied closer we saw a small kid crying to the gods and he got a little more quiet as we got closer. As we were within five feet this conversation went on...

Missy: Are you okay?
Boy: Sobbingly, "Yeah"...
Missy: Any broken bones?
Boy: Sniff sniff, "Nooo..."
Missy Do you need help?
Boy: Sniff sniff.

Missy grabbed a ski and handed it to the little guy and asked if he was just going to walk down, to where the boy cried and sobbed and answered yes. As we skied on, the boy cried and walked down the hill.

As we approached the top there was another boy maybe that of 10 years of age who had fallen 15 feet from the two adults watching. He continued to scream over and over that he hated the skis he was using. I propped my poles at the tips of his skis to help him up. He stood up and I asked if he was ready and he said he was...So I removed the ski poles and he fell right down. I repeated the process and Missy noticed he didn't have any poles. So upon asking where they were, he responded that he hated them and didn't want them. So before release the poles, we had him bend his knees and back and he looked like he was good to go. With the release of the poles he went maybe 10 feet before he fell and shrieked that he hated those skies...

We approached the first big hill where the past year Dennis had fallen numerous times on his first attempt of skiing and I told this to Missy. I should have knocked on wood. The ground was fast and the snow was coming down. As I tried to follow the bend and turn left I fell backwards wiping out. Nothing was broken and I still had a smile on my face.

We got to the Orange Mound and that's when I was nervous. I put the skis in the groomed tracks and hoped for the best. The hill is rather long and I was picking up speed. The tracks my skis were in weren't the greatest and I probably could blame some young kids who fell in them but I made it down pretty quickly. Right at the end I some how fell forward. I think I was trying to "pizza" when I was "french frying". I managed to get back up and dust most of the snow off before Missy brought up the rear. When she arrived I said, "No falls here", and she said, "Well that's good," To then I responded with, "Just wearing snow for no reason. Yep, totally didn't fall here," and then I laughed and she smiled.

We made it to some pavement and decided to walk the upper terrace boardwalk that overlooks Canary Springs. The last time I walked the portion of the boardwalk would have been in March or April of 2013. At that time there was water everywhere on the springs but not now. New springs had formed and the old ones had dried out. It really took me by surprise. I wanted to grab some buckets of water and try and start them up again, but I guess the hot springs have been shifting for years. There were many earthquakes last summer that also could have been a factor in changing the water tunnels/routes underground, but I never felt the earthquakes because they were so far away; you never know though.

We walked the upper boardwalk and skied back to Matilda in less than 20 minutes. If Missy hadn't visited that day, I doubt that I would have been skiing that day, not to mention see the boardwalks.