I'm not exactly sure what fell from the sky last night, but the crust over everything is quite spectacular outside today. It is sparkly and beautiful, but it sure made for a tedious walk along the "short cut trail" to the bus this morning. Clearing the ice off the car, the chicken coop door, the skis I stuck in the snow last night and the toboggans definitely took some time this morning too. Nonethless, I do feel very fortunate for all of the amazing snow we have even after some long patches of warm weather.

Although we are right in the middle of winter, spring rowing can seem a ways off, but very soon we'll be into syrup season, and shortly after we'll be waiting for the ice to go. While we still have winter here, why not take advantage of some of the many amazing outside activities you can do to get a great workout and enjoy some fresh air for the body and the mind.

Our favorite winter cross training activity is definitely cross country skiing. We are so lucky to have no shortage of well maintained trail networks in the area and if you haven't tried cross country skiing yet, or if you haven't in a while, many of the locations have rentals and lessons to get you going. Thinking outdoor activities for your kids? What better way for the whole family to get a workout then by having the kids in cross country ski lessons with a whole bunch of kids their age while you get a great workout too! Checkout some of the trails we have at our ski tips in our area here.

Another great way to get a workout in the winter is skating, and while our local arenas all offer great skating times and very reasonable prices (or even free!), we are also lucky enough to have a growing number of outdoor rinks and trails in our community. The following links have a list of outdoor skating rinks and skating trails in the area.

Rounding it off to make it a top three, snowshoeing is also a great workout, and can be done anywhere you can find the white fluffy stuff. If you have done some snow shoeing and are looking for some new trails in the area, Explorer's Edge posted some snowshoe trails you may not have been to that you could check out.

Finally, if you have limited time, wheels or equipment - nothing is preventing you from building a fort, snowman, toboggan run, igloo - with the snow outside, or your imagination is the limit - so get out there and have fun!