A Classic Afternoon

With ants in my pants at work today, I knew that a tour through the woods was going to be a lot more personally rewarding than sitting on a chairlift for a few hours.

Still trying to figure out classic skiing, I headed on down to the touring center...and today I was able to put my skis on without any help from strangers :). Perhaps it was my new Mammut Rash Jacket, a super sick windstopper piece with thumbies that somehow matches my Mammut Eiger Extreme Mittellegi Pants. The full-zip jacket weighs like 7 ounces, so it's perfect for XC running and skiing. I've been looking at it in the shop for months now and with the snow finally providing a great excuse for XC skiing, I went for it.
So, if I couldn't ski for crap, at least I looked the part.
I can be such a Herb sometimes, oh well.

Anyways, we had two hours to kill while the BF went down to Rutland for Stick and Puck, so it was off to see if we could even last for a two hour ski. I mean, I had no idea what kind of effort would be required as we headed down Blue and around Kent Pond before heading across to the more adventuresome trails.

We chose a really long loop - the Purple Trail - because they had laid track down and I was working on extending my glide with every stide
whoosh...switch, whoosh...switch,whoosh....
It's kind of like lead foot transitions in your tele turns, yet you keep going straight.
It's kind of like rowing, except that you're standing up and sliding forward.
Vespi just likes the track because she knows I am stuck in it, there's no poles flying around like in skate skiing, and so long as she stays out of the track in front of me, we each have our own space.

We were skiing forever.
And since I had no idea about the contour of the area, I couldn't tell if we were winding up the same hill, traversing all the way to China, or riding a Nordic Track - except that the scenery kept changing. It was so beautiful..and completely solitudeus (I just made that word up. I kind of like it). Besides, I was so busy trying not to trip on myself, shoot my front foot out front or just generally not moving efficiently that I just followed the track wherever it would take me.
It was kind of a nice, brain-numbing effect.
Perfect for a two-hour tour.

I was reminded of a song that my dad would sing:

Did they ever return?
No they never returned
And their fate is still unknown...

But then we arrived back at the lake.
Huh?

I have no idea how we got there, but arrive we did...and neither Vespi nor I was quite exhausted enough yet.
So we tried The Green Loop.

Which nobody else had tried!!

How epic is that?! Fresh tracks in freshly warmed snow after ridinng the track for a while. It was beautiful and the perfect snowman making snow...which I quickly realized wasn't exactly the best for classic skiing. Oh, don't get me wrong, it was super sic, but if you moved your ski the wrong way the sticky snow would get stuck on the fishscales and you would have to slap the ski to the snow to loosen it up. At least it kept me from hauling ass down the pitch. I am embarrassed to say that my skinny ski snowplow is not quite up to snuff for the downhills.
Whoooooaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

We made our way back to the lake and did another exhausted loop around the pond. I felt sooo much better than the first lap. There is something about skiing those back trails that leaves you coming out a better skier when you come out :)
I can't wait to try it again...but for now, I need a nice hot shower and a drink to relax those hard-worked muscles that are just waking up.
Oh wait, it's off to work at the Birch Ridge Inn for a few hours.
Stop by and have a drink sometime :)

May You Find the Spirit of the Mountains Within You,
FemaleSkiBum & Vespoli