It was a great opportunity to get in a Christmas hike in the foothills, with mild weather and little snow. It was minus 5 with a chill breeze at the trailhead, but as soon as we headed out on the Tom Snow Trail it warmed up nicely in the trees, reaching plus 5 by lunch.

Everyone had traction devices, ensuring a safe hike on some icy sections, but the ridge section was dry, bare ground, just like a regular hike.

We headed up the longest loop on the Ridgeback Trail, stopping for lunch on a warm, dry slope with big aspen trees. We returned via Tom Snow and the first two loops of Ridgeback. These trails are like competitive ski trails, only in this case bike trails, as they dipsy doodle up and down, and a question was raised: "Are we really heading for the cars?" We got to see some of the brand new craze in biking--super fat snow tires.

We crossed 4 logging roads and heard the roar of the machinery liquidating the forest in a massive clear cutting operation. Hopefully they will leave some buffer for the recreational trails. It was cloudy until late afternoon, when the sky finally cleared and we enjoyed some bright yellow sunshine on the shortest day of the winter solstice.

We were back to the cars just after 3, after 14 km and perhaps 400m of elevation gain. Participants: Denise, Brian, Teresa,(thanks for these photos) Barb, Mohsen, Francisco, Inge and Carl, coordinator and scribe.