Cross Country Skiing

[solobiker]

Not to mention that the ground is usually softer under your skis!

Unless when you fall going at a fairly fast speed and your knee hits your ski...happened to me last spring and I ended up with a cracked knee cap Boy did that hurt. Still hurts at times. I went to my nemesis hill last weekend and was able to do it without incident..although I was going quite a bit slower this time

[roadie gal]

We've had about a week of snow/rain/snow/rain, etc. There wasn't a huge accumulation at my house (6700 ft elevation) but the higher elevations got about 10-12 feet. Today was marginally nicer, although still snowing a little, so we decided to go to the XC center with our touring skis. We took those skis because we had no idea what the conditions would be like and we knew we could handle anything with those skis, even if it was slower going than the skaters or track skis.

I'm glad we did because we hit everything from ice to hard pack to powder to mush as we changed elevation. But it was 2 good hours of exercise and still a lot of fun.

[roadie gal]

I took a downhill skate ski clinic yesterday. I'm pretty weenie about going downhill on those skinny sticks.

We went over to the local "beginner" ski hill and practiced there. Basically it was a beginner alpine ski lesson on the skating skis. We started with snowplow and progressed over a few hours to parallel turns.

I don't know if I'll be able to parallel in the groomed trails, but I think this did help a lot with my fear of going downhill.

I'm hoping to go skate skiing today after I do all of my "honey do's". So we'll see what happens.

[mudmucker]

Got 18" from the last storm. Great conditions everywhere!

Went to Wendell yesterday, Friday. I saw some guys over near the maintenance barn and started talking with them since I noticed Wendell hadn't been groomed yet and it was 2 days after the storm. Got the full low-down. About 52 DCR employees got laid off recently. That leaves 2 people to maintain 4 state parks that are near me.

However they will groom next week they said - they were waiting for some "traffic" and compression since the snow was so fine and dry. They did go out on snowmobiles to compress a little bit so right now the paths are 2 snowmobile widths. The conditions were excellent when I went out. They'll be grooming twice a week with a machine thereafter.

It was quite busy when I was there, for a weekday. There were 3 cars at one access and 6 at the main access. I passed 4 people while I was out. The guys said that because of the economy people are looking for cheaper alternatives for fun, and that forest usage during the winter has increased in the last 2 years.

Today I went to Dennision. This is always well maintained. I learned that DCR owns the groomers but Coldbrook does the maintenance which is why conditions are so good all the time. It was fairly busy with snowmobilers though being a weekend after some very good snow. I went to a part that was less busy and had an excellent ski but I might avoid Dennison on the weekends unless I go late in the afternoon or on a weekday.

However today I came across the dogmusher that goes out there. How fun.

[Crankin]

That looks cool, Mudmucker.
I went to Northfield Mountain today. I went with friends who are faster skiers than me, but since I drop her on the bike all of the time, they understand. DH has been horribly sick, so he stayed home.
Northfield is a unique place. It's groomed and a regular touring center, but it's very down to earth. So, despite the fact my hip/back is killing me, I climbed to the top of the mountain, 1100 ft., on the blue trail and skied back down on a blue trail. No falls, one little slip where my knee went down, and feeling very tired from essentially climbing the whole first half, which took us 1 hr. 20 minutes. We ate lunch at the overlook, but didn't dawdle, since I felt really chilled, I had sweat so much. Going down took like 10-15 minutes.
There were lots of cars there, but only one other guy at the top, eating, and one other group at the summit, when we were getting ready to go down.
OK, gotta go clean myself up, now that all of the gear is put away.

[DebW]

I skied Windblown today for 6 hours. Nice conditions though bits of grass showing through in a few places. Tomorrow I'll be skiing at Great Brook Farm for the afternoon.

[jessmarimba]

Any of you Colorado folks (or anyone who'll be visiting CO) interested in a TE cross-country ski gathering/teach Jesse to CC ski day some weekend?