Embrace the Seasons

It's hard to think about Summer kayaking when its -5 degrees, and dealing with frozen water pipes here in the shop this morning. But April is only a couple months away. Last Spring Ron Steinwall and I were the first kayakers to get camping permits for the Apostles on Lake Superior durng the 2nd weekend of April. But to get through the long Winters here, one must embrace the seasons. The cross country skiing has taken much of my time so far this Winter, and hopefully we will get some more snow for the Mora Vasaloppet. The skiing has kept me from taking on the couch potato syndrome, and the cross training I believe will help my paddling. The skate skiing has much the same torso rotation as paddling, and the balance issues with skiing and paddling are the same. Using your body for balance rather than relying on ski poles or the paddle has much the same feel. At any rate, this Winter has been going by quickly.

ABR Weekend

Just back from a weekend of skiing, and snowshoeing. The UP of Michigan along the south shore of Lake Superior picks up moisture from the lake, and dumps huge amounts of snow inland. Just about the perfect place to plan a weekend of Winter activities. We did manage to pick a cold weekend, temps dipped to around -17F overnights and stayed around -4F for the daytime. The "Ski Team" did two days skiing at ABR, and an afternoon snowshoeing along the Black River.

I'm fairly new at the skate skiing game, and trying to skate at these temps was tough. Maybe even tougher on ski's as I managed to break a ski on Saturday. It was a great trip, a full weekend of skiing, snowshoeing, saunas, hot tubs, and good friends.

Cool Airplanes

DC-3 came in for some work at the prop shop yesterday ... first time I've seen one here in many years. It happened on the one day this month I left my camera at home, so I had to use the cell phone camera.

The SKOAC Kayak/Ski Team

January Thaw

The winter weather here never seems to stay the same from one week to the next, sometimes even a day will go from one extreme to the other. Last week over the New Year holiday it was hard to keep fingers from freezing while outside for any length of time. This weekend the snow was rapidly melting, dense fog has persisted, with some beautiful hoar frost covering the trees. The fog has caused some nasty traffic problems on some of the Wisconsin highways this morning. The SKOAC kayak/ski team spent some quality time checking out the Mora Vasaloppet ski trail this weekend. Dave was trying out his new waxless skis, while I was trying to figure out the grip wax, I finally gave up and skated most of the afternoon. There is something to those waxless skis when the temps get up to the melting point.

Saturday was skiing with the team, Sunday was an ISK pool session I just couldn't miss. I was looking forward to working on some new rolls, but the old ones I do have were in need of some attention. So it was a weekend of hard work ... if you could call it that ...

New Years Skiing

New Years Day had an opportunity to paddling at Hidden Falls with ISK, also I think a few other hardy souls planned to go. I had every intention to go too, but with temps around 5F and some gusty winds ... I just couldn't bring myself to load the kayak and gear make the trip ... instead I did some skiing with Chris, Courtney, and Jill. The winds were still gusty, and it was still a bit cold, but I had dry feet and hands! We did ski for the better part of the afternoon, with a nice warm up at a local Caribou Coffee shop. This weekend should be some more good skiing up in the Mora area, now the weather is turning warm ... go figure.