First Ski of the Year

I ashamed to say that today was the first x-country ski of the season.  There is not an excuse for waiting this long.  We have a very nice snow base and I am willing to bet most all of the trails in our area are in excellent condition.  The trail I went on today was the Tomahawk Lake Trail located in and maintained by the Township of Barnes WI.  It is about 25 miles from our home, but well worth the trip.   

It is free to use, but I think if you are using the trail and can spare a couple bucks, you surely should make use of the donation box at the trail head.

If you notice in this photo, it is not tracked which made wonder if I should use the trail today.  After pondering it a bit, I came to the conclusion that they pull the tracker with a snowmobile so my ski tracks should do no harm before they get the tracks set.

I have skied here before, but it has been a couple years, so naturally I took a wrong turn right out of the box.  It is a one way trail system, so I back tracked and made the right turn.  What started out to be a 7k ski ended up to be an 8.5k, which was a good thing.

The last time I skied here, this warming shelter was surrounded by large trees.  Some of the area has been logged, but I knew that before I came out here, because my son had set up the timber sale and so graciously told me before I left the house for the ski.

I took all these pictures with the cell phone, so the quality may be questionable, I will tell you these are some nice trails.

At near 20F with an overcast sky, it was better than sitting in the house...or using the exercise room indoors.

They have a lot of benches along the way...and now that I look at this picture, I should have taken the time to clean the snow from them. 

The tracker and the drag sat at the beginning. 

When I arrived back to the parking lot, people had come to ice fish Tomahawk lake.

On the way I back home I went by the shoe tree.  They don't show up well with the snow on the trees, but there are shoes hanging from the trees.   A while back there was only one tree here loaded with shoes when someone complained of it being an environmental issue.  Mind you the tree was bordering the road in the middle of a very rural area.  Complaints were made and shoes removed.  Next, the road is trimmed of brush and trees near the road...and said tree is removed.  The people from the area have reclaimed what looks like two trees.   OH  OH ! ! !

Aerobics:  a series of strenuous exercises which help convert fats, sugars, and starches into aches, pains, and cramps.