First Ski of the Season

After my first snowshoe outing on Sunday, described in the last two posts, on Tuesday I joined my energizer bunny ski buddy, and got out for our first cross-country ski of the winter season.  Conditions were amazing for before Christmas, thanks both to the heavy snow last week and to all the volunteer trail groomers.  We had a great ski.

Our favourite trails are at the Glenelg Nordic Ski Club, where 400 acres of public and another 200 acres of private land provide hours and hours of great cross-country trails, all maintained by volunteers.  We try several different xc ski places each winter, but these are always the best.

We started into the trails off the sideroad where parking is available.  One of the best things here is the maps that are available, done on an air photo base, and posted at several junctions along the trails.  It's really easy to find your way around, though you could ski all day if you wanted to and never use the same trail.

The trail we took starts through a coniferous patch, including this shaded stretch of track between young White Pines, and it's going downhill which is nice.

It curves around the edge of a pond, but that's the only open spot on the whole loop we skied.

Most of the trail is through mature deciduous forest, though with gusting winds it was even penetrating among the trees.  We didn't want to stand still too long, but the skiing kept you warm!

We like the Glenelg trails best both because they are consistently so well groomed and track-set, and because they are quite hilly.  You do have to pay the price of climbing hills, but that's good for the old cardio, and the long downhill runs are exhilarating.  As usual, the energizer bunny was disappearing in the distance.

Mind you some of the hills are a little tricky.  Long straight runs downhill are fine, but you have to have your wits and your balance about you when the hills have curves and disappear out of sight around a bend, like this one.  I always hesitate here in case someone's coming the opposite direction.  You really need to know how to snowplow; having downhill skiing experience, even if I'm not doing it anymore, is really helpful!

The woods were snowy, the tracks were untouched and fast; and keeping up with the energizer bunny gave me some great exercise.  We had a great ski!  Here's to many more to come this winter!