It was a cloudy morning, which is probably good because there are some spots that are very thinly covered with snow and any sun on them will probably cause melt-through to the bare ground. We had a nice ski, even stopping to take a selfie, above, (which Enrico doesn't often agree to). When I got up to the dog park, there was an Irish Setter, so I whistled at him to race me the length of the dog park, which he did for awhile before giving up. I had fun doing a series of quick step turns at the end of the dog park to turn around, but when I did, I saw Enrico was nowhere in sight! I hustled back to see what had happened to him. He had fallen, but he was okay.
As we were standing there talking, we saw some movement across the river--a herd of deer was moving through the trees. At that moment, a skier came by and I asked if he saw the deer. He was into his skate ski and didn't hear me. We saw him again after he turned around at the dog park and pointed them out. I skied the length of the dog park. This time the Irish Setter was completely uninterested in racing me. When I turned around, Enrico was not there again, so I skied back to find him. He had stopped to talk to the skier, who told him that he often sees a red fox when he skis in the morning. This time, Enrico and I skied to the end of the dog park together.
At the end of the park, we saw a dog off leash--his owner was watching him from the car. I've met the guy before--he's older and a veteran and had knee surgery last year. I pick up his dog's poop because he doesn't seem able to do it. I was sad to see that he didn't even feel well enough to get out of his car today to exercise his dog.
On the way back, Enrico and I stopped to catch our breath. I looked across the river.
"The deer are still there," said Enrico.
"It's amazing how good they are at hiding in a place where there is actually little cover," I responded.
"Hey, do you remember our first date?" I asked, "When we met up in McCall, Idaho?" A friend of my roommate had won a weekend at a timeshare in McCall, and she couldn't use it, so she let me have it.
"Did we go downhill skiing that time?" he asked.
"Yes, we went cross-country and downhill on that trip," I replied. "I was entranced by how beautifully you downhill skied, how supple your hips were."
"Oh, if you had seen anyone from my high school team, you would not have been so impressed," said my modest husband.
We chatted a bit more, then we saw a burst of movement on the opposite bank. There were some children sledding who had startled the deer, and the herd was on the move. We watched as the deer streamed down the bank in a line and onto the river. We counted nine of them; one had a limp. They began running up the river, and I said, "Let's ski beside them!" So we skied in the same direction, watching them run, until they turned to go up the riverbank again and into the woods.
"The last one twitched his ears, then waved his tail back and forth, as if to erase our memory of having seen them," said Enrico to our son later.
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