Sun, Mar 4 2007 - Afternoon X-C ski at Albion Hills (View Original Event Details)
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The cold and blowing wind was not enough to deter many from an afternoon of skiing. I don't know if it was the lack of snow early in the season, but everyone was anxious to get on the trails. Albion Hills offers a discounted rate after 1pm, so for $12 we got entry to all the trails. I haven't been on skis since my disastrous outing at Hardwood Hills last year where I vowed to never go on a hill again. We had a few expert skiers - David and Gerry looked confident and went straight for the longest red trail without hesitation. Elliot, Matt, Wade and Daniel made up their own group and took off down the yellow trail "C'mon Steph it's an EASY trail" said Elliot, so I believed him and followed. In fact, the majority of the group started behind me on the yellow trail. I shooshed confidently in the beginning, out in front and zipping up hills, past poor Tom who made a wrong wax choice and couldn't find any group on the hills. Luke skied with me up to the first hill when I suddenly lost all confidence - he offered some words of encouragement and zipped down the hill. I waved one or two people by - I was waiting for Dom to catch up, after all - and went down the first hill...and survived! But that was a shortlived confidence as the next hill was longer, steeper, with curves and trees and all sorts of nasty obstacles. I waved a few more people by. I attempted to go down...and crashed. I got up and waved a few more people by. Then I crashed again. Well this went on and on and on, until out of pure frustration I took off my skiis and walked down the hill. I think I walked down several hills, continually bemoaning the entire sport of x-country skiing. "If I wanted to ski down a hill I'd go downhill skiing" I declared loudly. Of course the only one who was still around to hear me was Dom who was having his own issues, but knows me well enough not to contradict me when I'm having a personal snit. I have never been happier to see the end of a trail in my life. Grumble Grumble. I talked to Melanie who was quite happy to trade in her skis for snowshoes, and easily convinced Julian to do the same.
After grabbing some water and silently cursing Elliot for leading me into the trail of death. Jenny convinced me to just keep trying and it will all come together. Really, it was coming at the end, on the smaller non curvy hills. Dom & I decided to attempt the slightly shorter green run. It starts out with a fairly steep hill, but it's mostly straight and no trees that attempt to jump out onto the track. On my first try not only did I manage to snowplow successfully, I completed the entire hill without falling. I was so surprised I stood up...and fell backwards. Ouch. The rest of the green trail was a mostly flat ride which I enjoyed immensely.
Back at the chalet, I joined a few of our members- Linda, Daniel, Tom, Dom, Jenny - for some hot chocolate and a bite to eat. Iain whipped out his Uno cards and I challenged him to game. It was pretty close but I managed to win in the end. I'm an ace UNO player! As more and more people came in from various trails I heard that I was not the only TOC member to curse the hills on the yellow trail! I felt better. Lisa suggested that I grab David for lessons, and we went off as a group to do one more circle of the easy green trail. She was right - David is a great teacher! I succeeded the hill with confidence once more and zipped around the short trail in no time. My day ended up on a positive note and from talking to others, it appears that they too enjoyed their afternoon
On the way back a few of us - Lisa, Luke, Gerry, Veronica, Daniel, Tamara, Dom and Julian - stopped off for a meal at Shoeless Joe's and wrapped up a fun afternoon and maybe the last of the season.
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