Lemons and Water

I always hear about drinking enough water, and I guess I am one of those people that has a hard time drinking enough to stay properly hydrated. A way I've found recently is to keep a thermos of hot water with a lemon to cut up and add to give some flavor. Its also a great way to warm up at the end of a long day ...

Sunrise on the Outer Loop

Up early and did the 5k loop lighted trail, then hit the outer 4 mile loop to watch the sunrise. I'll have to round up some of the usual suspects for some afternoon skiing. Going to be a nice day!!

More Snow!

A fresh 4 inches of snow last night made the outside loop at Elm Creek a bit of a slog this morning. It was a nice time to be out.

This owl was hunting for his morning meal ... he made a quick jump on something, more than likely a mouse.

And as soon as I passed him he was off. Great morning on the trails!!

Swix Blue

With the highs a bit below freezing it's looking like a Swix Blue kind of week shaping up. Glide wax comes in a few different colors, and each color will be for a specific range of temperature. Around the upper Midwest, blue seems to be the color of choice most of the time. So with Christmas shopping all done ... a day ahead of time this year!! A peaceful evening here with a light new coating of snow, I took the opportunity for a relaxing evening in the shop and get the skis ready for yet another few training sessions. So with errands all completed, and the day off from work, I will be gliding over the trails at Elm Creek tomorrow morning, visiting family in the afternoon, dinner and some music for the evening.

Just a holiday wish for everyone to be with the ones they love and care about over their holiday celebrations.

Good Ski Night

It's tough getting good night images without a tripod. I had to rest the little Olympus on a lamp post to steady it for the 2 or 3 second exposure time.
Had some good skiing tonight. After running some errands, trying to get a little last minute Christmas shopping in, I still needed to get at least an hour ski in. When I got to French, I found the place absolutely packed! Not even a place to park in the lot. I almost bagged it. Well, it was still 7:30, the lights are on in the park until 10pm so I really didn't have a good excuse for not going.
Elm Creek was only 20 minutes away so I thought I'd take a chance on finding a parking spot, and hopefully not have to ski through a mass of people. Traffic was light, Elm had plenty of parking room, and a lot less people.
I had some good luck with the V2 open field skate tonight, finally getting the timing down a little better. Good balance seems to play a big part in making everything go smoothly. The older I get, the more elusive good balance is! Tonight was good! I even had the chance to pass a few skaters instead of being passed all the time. Of course none of the skaters I passed tonight were real Olympian material, but none the less, it was nice to not get passed all night long!

Catching Up

With the last couple snow falls we are well on our way to a great skiing season. I don't remember the last time we've had this much snow in mid December, and we were even fortunate enough to have some skiing in Duluth over the Thanksgiving weekend. I've actually had plenty of stuff to write about, I've just not taken the time to sit down and put another blog post together. So my apologies to those that came here and found nothing but the sound of crickets.

I couldn't be happier with the early snow this year. I'm going to need all the time I can get on the ski trails with the Vasaloppet, and the Birkie coming up towards the end of February. The Birkie I've never done before, so this is a first for me. And if I'm doing the Birkie I might as well sign up for either the 35k or the 58k in the Vasa. I think with a decent time in the Vasa I can move up a wave or two in the Birkie, I'm currently in the ninth wave.

So the training is going smoothly. I'm out skiing at least an hour most every night after work, and as much as i can on the weekends. I'm going to need it! Right now I'm only good for a bit over an hour and I start running out of energy, I'm going to need quite a bit more than that.

So since the training has begun, I will try and keep posting here how the progress goes. I'm also planning on skating the Birkie, and this is really only my second year skating so it could be interesting!

Border Lakes

Late Fall trips to the Canadian border lakes can be tempting when the promise of nice weather is in the forecast, especially when I know Summer boat traffic is long gone. This time of year, the north country lakes are quiet. It's the time between fishing, hunting, and snow machines. Kabetogama was the choice this time, and with a base camp at Woodenfrog campground, we had a perfect opportunity to check out the West end of Kab. I'd never seen the the Ellsworth Rock Gardens so this was our first destination for a late Friday afternoon lunch stop. The gardens are a worthwhile stop to see, and I can only imagine the how it would look in the Spring with the flowers in full bloom. As it was we saw the stone structures one man had assembled over 20 years. One can only imagine the work involved, moving the large stones into place with planks and ropes. The gardens are worth the time to go see.

This was a weekend trip we decided to leave the GPS at home and do some seat of the pants navigation. It was hard to leave the reliable little Garmin at home this time, and on a part of the lake I'd never been on, it was going to be a challenge! I'd like to blame it on poor maps, because more than once I was wondering what island we were looking at. In the end we found our way, but it wasn't without some head scratching! Navigation among the lakes and islands of the north country is definitely a challenge, some map reading skills along with a good understanding of the compass is the only way to be comfortable finding your way around this place.

The weather was fantastic .. we had the full moon weekend .. and with a base camp at Woodenfrog, with the Jeep and a cooler full of good food, plenty of wood for the campfires for the long fall evenings, a deck of cards and a bottle of wine. Life can be pretty darn good if you give it a chance.