The goal to ski thirty days in a row got a little nuts at the end. I had no intention to finish out the month like it did but with no natural snow options, it was either don't ski, roller ski (which I only wanted to allocate one day to) or travel. We had close to an inch of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday at 35 degrees. If it would have been a few degrees cooler, that would of been around 7" of snow and I would of been stoked. Instead, it snowed far north (lucky them) and I had to resort to some unusual types of skiing.
In college a buddy talked me in to gravel skiing one day. It was actually pretty fun. I have always thought gravel piles would be fun to ski in the winter and had been keeping my eye on the Ponsford Prairie set for a number of years. The northeast facing slope was the best glide and consistency and I got the skiing in sunshine before clouds and a cold rain moved in. I had the camera set up on a tripod.
A few years ago, my dad added a pair of "bog" skis to his enormous wood ski collection. The guy he bought them from explained how they were used by folks to travel across bog to check traps and perform other chores. People coming to Maplelag have always asked about them and thought one day it might be interesting to try it to explain if they work. I didn't think about using them until Jonell's dad Rodney suggested, half jokingly. I went all the way around the slough and they worked much better than I expected. It was better to drag the ski forward than try to lift up. Crossing beaver channels. When friends and family saw this they laughed and said I had lost it but this was done with respect to people who actually used these and made a living via. Using them you could tell they were designed to be the most efficient possible and to perform proper.
Thursday was the only roller ski outing. I took Jens and Jon along and did some sprints with them to mix it up.
Would turn out to be Jens last physical exertion for a while as he and Jon collided in his bedroom playing basketball no less and Jens broke his toe in three spots.
The weekend Jon had Advanced 15 tryouts in Alexandria which made it convenient to close out the 30 days by skiing on the last remaining slope at Andes in the moonlight. It looked like I was going to be skunked but when we pulled in there was a good swath of snow on one of the steeper runs. It was good fun having this goal and will transfer all the twitter posts to one page to be posted later.
Jon precise and frequent with taping. The weekend went well. Two more weeks of skill and evaluation drills to determine a team of 20 from our district. Always some good conversation with other hockey dads from the area. Fun watching these kids. Passionate about hockey and some very nice players.
Jack enjoying the early ice out via kayak.
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