With the planned ski camp for the weekend at Maplelag canceled, I was able to take Jake to Ironwood for the opening races in the JR Olympic qualifying series at Wolverine this past weekend.
We arrived in good time Friday to ski the full 10km course, hooking up with Steve Gromatka. It was good to be on continuous snow again after logging the k's here at Maplelag on the lake and up and down around Suicide hill. The course was a bit bumpy due to frost heaving and low snow conditions but the snow was fast and beautiful skiing. The groomers/volunteers did a great job working the snow they had and you could see on the side of the trail, they did a lot of shoveling. They even spray painted the rocks and roots for the racers! Nice job to them.
Saturday was the 10km skate race. Jake had a fantastic start to the season with a 8th place finish in the OJ division. I raced in the open/citizen, more or less skiing hard and had a good time. It was a great course with long climbs, technical and fast. Not sure if Lyme or getting older has done it but the high end sensations are harder to find. Whatever, just happy to be back out there skiing fast (for me) through the woods. Six weeks ago when I got James Harrisoned or Cincanattied (take your pick) by that shepherd hook, I didn't even know if would be able to ski for a while. Have to keep heads up, and keep the wheels moving.
Kris and Kyia Anderson were in Ironwood for demo days at ABR and flying by everyone pulling Aunders in the chariot on the trails there. Kindly invited us over to lunch at their place. It was very nice to walk in to a hot meal and great conversation on skiing and biking. There are no shortage of topics as K2A2 have been around the world biking and skiing. Their beautiful baby Aunders is growing up fast and good to seem him squirming around. Kris and I were talking some old school tele, knee pads, leather and pins. If you want to learn how to to tele, ask Kris and he will teach you proper starting out on the old stuff instead of the high end Paul Bunyan Big Foot plastic boots and parabolic boards. Hopefully we can burn some turns together in the future. 
Sunday was the 10km classic. The temp was much warmer and the snow was starting to break down a bit, causing skiers to question if the track or outside of the track was faster skiing. Also made for a little bit trickier waxing but nothing the wax people couldn't stay on top of. All good stuff in the excitement and unknowns of ski racing. Jake didn't have as good of placing as Saturday but still a great result capping off a solid start to the season. For not having any tracks to ski in this early season, more or less boondocking with the crowners, a nice race by JR4.
Jake cranking it hard at the finish in the classic. Jake's placing wasn't as high as Saturday but a solid result and great start to the season. Skiing the warm up with Jake and Steve I was thinking it would of been fun to race again but was fun to watch the top dogs and catch the action.
Matt Liebsch left no question mark as the big shooter in the Midwest, taking both the classic and freestyle events in convincing fashion. The racing was interval starts so it was skier vs the clock but Matt was skiing like he was in a sprint finish. After seeing him at the finish, I have to say I haven't seen anyone put forth an effort like Matt. He is an absolute animal, skiing with passion and desire. Wish him all the best as he tries to make a coveted spot on the National team for the next winter Olympics.
Kyle Bratrud, freshly removed out of high school at Eden Prairie and now skiing at Northern Michigan, put in some very solid results including a top five finish in the classical. I got to know Kyle a little bit from the years he was here with EP for training camps. Super nice kid and the collapse at the finish line is legit with the effort he put forward.
We pretty much bolted straight home, with just five minute stop for fast food in Superior and made it back to catch most of Jon's late afternoon game on Sunday. They were playing Walker which is on A schedule because of the VFW status. It was a total blowout in DL favor and games like this are not fun to watch, for both sides, imo. Walker and Park Rapids can't come to terms to merge at the youth level and the kids and other teams in the district feel it without going in to more detail. All part of the hockey drama politic world which you can't let get consuming.
Full moon Sunday night and clear skies made for some great lake skating to top off a fun weekend, glad I was able to go.
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