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!