Peninsula SP Candlelight Ski

Last night I went out with a couple of my buddies, John and Josh to Peninsula State Park's Candlelight Ski. The friends group had set up luminaries along a 1-mile loop of ski trail with a warming fire at the halfway point. We hit the trail planning on skiing a little farther than just the lit loop, so we brought our headlamps along. At the halfway point, my hands were painfully cold, so I moved in close to the raised fire pit to warm them. being graceful as I am, I began to slide forward to the pit, then tried to swing my ski tip away, parallel to the fire. I caught the tip of my ski, slid all the way against the pit, banged my shins removing some skin, and managed to fall over backward/sideways rather than falling into the fire. For a brief second I was terrified picturing my synthetic clothes melting to me out in the woods, and managed to get away with simple embarrassment as I picked myself up.

After this debacle, I got up and we headed out on the Orange Loop. One of the things I really like about skiing at night after a heavy snowfall is the "Narnia Effect." The Narnia Effect is where the snow sticks to the trees weighing down the branches, so it looks like you skiing in a scene from C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," or as John thought, "The Polar Express."

Ski Trails in the Land of Narnia!

The skiing was pretty fantastic - the trails definitely get better the farther you get from the parking lot. We were skiing by headlamp; two lights for three dudes. At one point, on a downhill, I flew away from John, who didn't have a light. I didn't really think much of it until we all turned off our lights and tried to ski. For the first few minutes we couldn't see the trail at all. After a bit the trail appeared in front of us and we chugged back to the candlelight loop. 

One thing I can help but think is that I need to carry some pruning shears with me when I ski - I don't think I've ever gotten hit by so many branches. 

We ended up skiing about 2.5 miles that night. We talked about going again, but John & Josh still had dinner and a 2+ hour drive to get home, so we split up about 7:30pm. 

I have really enjoyed getting out on the snow this winter. Just having snow and the ability to get out have given me an appreciation for what I have been largely missing the last two winters!

Potawatomi State Park Ski

"I can do this! Inside foot back, bend the knees, a little lunge...nope. Can't do it." About 2/3 of my way through my 5th cross country ski session of the winter, I ate it. I came up to a slight downhill with a pretty sharp little curve in it. Having knot skied since March of 2011, I know that my skills are rusty, but if you don't try you will never know. Now I know that I need to work on my tele turns.

Snow has been pretty scarce on the Door Peninsula this winter, and we had almost none last season. Beyond the business hit from low snow conditions, it has become a bit of a mental health issue for some of us. Going to the gym is ok, but I need the changing scenery, and to be honest, I'm not much of a hiker.

This trip to Potawatomi State Park was actually a little longer than I expected. I had been running errands in "The Big City" of Sturgeon Bay, and figured that as long as I was down this way, I may as well get in a little snow time. When I started it was 4F with a below zero windchill, so I dressed for the occasion. I'm pretty sure my wool Buff saved me some skin - my cheeks were burning pretty early, so I had to pull it up to cover basically everything but my eyes.

Initially I set our for a little 2.4 mile loop (Blue). When I can to the first intersection, I evaluated how I was feeling, and decided to push it a little further - the Black Loop at 4.3 miles. I followed the Black loop until it split off from the Red - and foudn no tracks where they were supposed to separate. Rather than make my own tracks on the skate deck, I stayed on the red loop, and got in a little extra mileage, bumping my total to around 5.6. Th trails were in great shape - the pole plants and tracks were firm, and everything was pretty even.

It was more exercise than I had planned on, and gravity seems to be affecting me differently these day - I feel like I am crushing my skis into the snow, but man, am I glad to get back out and ski! It's like mountain biking - sometimes it is hard to get motivated to get out the door, but I always feel much much better physically and mentally when I do!

Golf Course Skiing

Looking out over Eagle Harbor from the golf course. Ephraim is out there somewhere!

Breakin' trail & skiing in jeans!

We've had very, very little snow here in Door County the last two winters. To so

me it may not seem like much, but I've gotten to ski for three days in a row now! Today it was about 34 all day, and it started snowing right before I left work - around 4pm. I slapped a little Grip & Glide on a set of Rossignol EVO Action no-wax skis, and hit the local golf course. I broke trail for about 45 minutes - it was tons of fun; I skied up and down Hill 7, our local sledding hill a couple of times, and just generally skied a lop around the course. It was really great to get out and be active in the snow. I will definitely be back out for more ASAP!

Hopefully some of the local parks can get their groomers out tomorrow. It began snowing around 3pm, and 9 hours later it's still coming down! Hooray for winter!