Twin Brook is the home course of trail monster running's TNR. It's also a trail system designed specifically for nordic skiing by olympian and olympic trail designer John Morton (who also designed the system at Pineland Farms). If you ski the trails a couple of times per winter, be sure to pop a couple of bucks each time into the box at the trail head at the first parking lot off of Tuttle Rd. If you ski more than a few times, you should support Twin Brook and local nordic skiing more formally by becoming a member of the Coastal Nordic Ski Club (direct link to membership form). The $15 membership is the price of a day ticket at most Nordic Ski centers and helps defray the cost of maintaining the grooming and snow making equipment.
Yesterday, I classic skied for the first time evah (not counting the 1/2 dozen backcountry skis last winter). I went to Riverside GC, which is usually nicely groomed but, surprisingly, had not yet been groomed this year. And this was a Sunday afternoon following some heavy snow (and of course in the middle of even more epic snow). Not knowing anything about waxing, I used blue kick wax and the snow was sticking to my kick zone. Apparently I needed green or even something called polar, or, if I were hot, I'd just kick it off with each stride. I did about 4.5 miles (most of the trail system were there actually trails there) in a little over 1 hour which is about my average walking pace! I also wore a blister because I was using my skate boots so I guess classic boots are in order (Don't tell Cacky).
Today I did two skis. First, some BC skiing on Blackstrap with Sasha and Rodney. Sasha is really beautiful in the deep snow. She had a blast bounding along. My skiing wasn't such a blast. I'm not sure if people can move through that deep of powder but I couldn't. I went 1 mile in about 35 minutes! Most of that time was trying to herringbone up a couple of small hills.
My second ski was at Twin Brook on my old skate skis. It was great to see all the skiers there - probably about 30 during the hour I was there. I got in 8 miles of easy skating just before dark.
With yesterday's temps, blue was definitely too warm of a wax. Plus, since it wasn't groomed, the unconsolidated snow would be more apt to stick to the warmer wax as well. Because it's not just temp, but also the condition of the snow. Welcome to the maddening art and science of kick waxing! Just wait until a klister day...
ReplyDeleteOh great. This is just like fly fishing. I guess skating is more like spin-fishing!
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