Erling Stordahl - 12.21.09

Jennifer and I went out again for some Nordic turns. The weather was colder and wetter than on Saturday but we persisted, hoping it would be drier once we were on the east side of the crest. It was moderately drier, and we left the car in a light rain/mist to check out the trails.

We paid extra for these level of trail grooming?

While it appears the main snowmobile road was groomed. When we got off it and headed toward Trollhaugen the grooming wasn't quite right. It appears they did attempt to groom, but only made one pass and that bare boots and four wheeled vehicles destroyed it somewhat. Past Trollhaugen the grooming effort was more obvious, but still wasn't up to par. We reached the same point in the woods we had last time and proceeded to follow other skiers tracks in the woods which returned us to the "groomed" section after a short loop.

Skiers tracks in the woods

We started heading back to the car on a different set of skiers tracks and then took a turn to make our trip a little longer. (At this point the rain was changing to a wintry mix.) After a bit of fun easy terrain, we got to a hill. I was inclined to turn around and call it quits when a family came down the hill. I asked the teenage girl what was that way and she responded with "fun hills." So I asked Jennifer is she wanted to turn around or continue, and we decided on continuing.

We climbed up a hill for a bit and then were on rolling terrain before tackling a larger hill. Then we had the task of descending the large hill which neither of us were up to. If it was groomed we would have had better success, but Jennifer took off her skis and walked it. While I sidestepped parts and tried to snowplow other sections. After a few falls we were back on more level terrain that we knew where we were. At this point is was full on snowing and we just headed back to the car.

Happier now the snow is falling.

This was a good workout with the uphills, but I'm still not ready for those types of downhills without grooming on skinny skis. Not sure why the grooming was so bad and incomplete. There was certainly enough snow for it. I'm guessing the grooming won't be right there until January.

Cabin Creek - 12.19.09

Jennifer and I got out for some Nordic skiing on the groomed trails of Cabin Creek Sno Park. The weather was miserable for our endeavour because it was above freezing and raining constantly. (More of a mist, but everything was wet.) Of course, this is still better than track skiing with icy snow, so it wasn't all bad. Not to mention it seemed to keep the crowds away. Usually if you show up in that parking lot when we did (Noon?) it is way full. It was interesting to get out on the skinny skis. The more I ski on my backcountry skis, the more I find the skinny skis scary.

The Road

We did an out and back on the road to warm up and then got on the intermediate loops for the fun. I fell once on a downhill, and Jennifer fell twice. But we weren't injured and the snow was soft and wet so was good cushioning. The trails and grooming aren't quite there yet as some of the track disappears into the ditches on the side of the trail at various times. There was also a fair amount of cones and dirt in the track which I think should be covered by another snowfall or two. It was nice to get out and although it didn't feel like that much of a workout, my legs are a little sore today.

Coming down one of the short hills