Teaser

I skipped double poling practice this morning in favor of hitting Twin Brook or Pineland in the late afternoon, after a couple of inches had fallen. Big mistake, as I sat glued to the radar image all day, watching the entire storm pass a mere 2-3 pixels south of Portland. I'm thinking Appledore Island is the place to ski tomorrow.

So I went to Twin Brook and ran a double Craig Cup, but starting from the Greeley Rd. side. It was very, very hardpack with a dusting of powder, which provided just enough grip to not slip in my screwless shoes. WARNING! I finished by 5PM but was locked in and had to call the Cumberland police to let me out. The policeman was very nice.

At least I was on skis...

Christmas eve was a classic exercise in time mismanagement. No skiing...or running, but I did discover where to find a hookah when we next redo our Turkish smoking room. Today I snuck in an hour at Twin Brook before Christmas Dinner at my brother-and-sister-in-laws. The fields need help. The woods are largely holding snow, except for the usual spot on the C loop, but there was a fair amount of debris including a small pine tree completely blocking the trail near the roller coasters on the B loop. The snow itself was frozen ice that had partially thawed into thick mashed potato that was tracked up by skis, boots, and dogs, all of which made for challenging skiing. THE downhill turn on the A loop which is usually a challenge was simply skipped. And while I usually try to hammer the other downhill turns on the A and B loops, I sort of pussied them today. So it was generally a good balance session but not much of a workout; I'm not sure I even broke a sweat, which is unusual for me. But it was a strikingly sunny day and the fields were beautiful. And at least I was on skis.

Twin Brook

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.