Alright folks, after weeks of 30-70F weather and a solid couple of rains, I am prepared to admit that it is now well into spring in the barren north. It is spring, and I have gone skiing exactly seven times this winter. Seven times. Over four trips. Not a single ski was even within city limits! Our snowpack has been terrible this winter.
We took one pleasant, if patchy, ski up with the SO's family around Christmas. In late January, we went for a leaf- and grass-ridden ski just north of Madtown. Our third trip was up to Minoqua Winter park (nicely maintained, reasonably scenic, bitterly cold), and, after a long morning trying to get the car started, we hit Nine-Mile Rec Area/State Forest on the return trip (always beautifully groomed, though perhaps not the most beautiful ski in the state of Wisconsin).
The last ski trip of the season was the one for the money. Ali's boss disappeared on a Friday, so our 2-day trip turned into an awesome 3-day vacation. We got to Nine-Mile by early afternoon. (We didn't completely blow off our lab work.) Every previous trip to ski in Wausau has begun with the intent to complete the 20k loop, plus or minus some of the "alps" sections, and since we were finally bright enough to try this on the first day of our trip instead of the last, we actually made it the whole way around this trip. As always, the grooming was perfect. There were even fewer oak leaves scattered across the classic track and a complete absence of patchy ice (a miracle for late winter). After knocking out 20k in just over two hours, we had plenty of time to get up to Ironwood.
For day two of our three day weekend, Ali & I headed over to the Porcupine Mountains - perhaps my favorite place within a 8 hour radius of Madison. The weather was perfect; we had bluebird skies and the warm sun on our faces, and the XC ski trails had actually been groomed! (The park claims that this is always the case; I'm used to either having to break my own trail or follow an old track through unrolled snow.) The track was fast, and we covered at least 75% of the trail system. The West Overlook was darned near perfect (a bit brisk), and the Big Hemlock Trail, which is my favorite for it's giant trees and impressive solitude, was beyond compare. We lunched down at the chalet (yummy pasties!) and were about to head out on the Lake Superior loop when somebody reminded us that we had switched into Eastern Time and the chalet was closing soon. Rather than have all of our gear locked inside while finishing our ski, we headed home with the sun still high in the sky. Our favorite restaurant was mysteriously closed, but we managed.
Day three, we headed over to ABR. The skies were dark when we arrived, and a fine snow began to fall as we headed out on the Sunrise trail. We set out to cover all of the classic-only trail, and we succeeded in a rather roundabout fashion. On our way from the wildlife-named trails to the tree-named trails, the sun finally broke through the clouds, and we had an hour or so of skiing before the sky became overcast again. Once again, we were off the trails a little sooner than expected. This time it was due to an eerie absence of other skiers (and of course our long drive home). I'm not sure that a longer ski would have been as pleasant; after three months without snow, we had hoofed over 60km of skiing within three days.
