The couple of inches that fell early yesterday morning turned the former ice skating rink conditions at Fuller Farm into great cross country skiing conditions.
And we were clearly not the only family to have decided it was necessary to get out and enjoy the unexpected snow.
The kids loved making the first ski tracks through the hills at the farm and spent a lot of time skiing down them. There is a challenge to skiing dowhill on cross country skis on ungroomed trails (skiing downhill was much easier yesterday) and keeping your balance. You never know what rut under the snow is going to knock you down.
After a while the kids and their friends got creative with their skiing style thinking it was fun to balance themselves going downhill while squating. If you've ever tried this you'll know it's probably a little harder than standing up.
We're headed to Fort Kent tomorrow for a cross country skiing adventure on the 10th Mountain Division trails at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Fort Kent.
We've never been to the area so in anticipation of the 5 1/2 hour drive north we invested in a Yakima roof rack for our cross country skis so we could take the smaller, more fuel efficient car. Our minivan gets about 10 miles to the gallon less than our compact wagon and we think over the course of the winter, having a rack on the smaller car will make a big difference on our overall travel costs this year.
We've also been getting our gear organized, which includes the new headlamps I bought everyone for Christmas so we can have a nighttime cross country ski adventure.
My friend Carl - a wealth of helpful information lately - suggested we also consider packing hot water in our water bottles before hitting the trails up north. Of course I should have realized that there was the strong possibility our water would freeze after even a short time out on the trails up there.
Carl uses an insulated container for his water bottle but after checking them out at a couple of stores, I decided they were too pricey for everyone in the family to get one (they run about $10-12/each and don't include the bottle).
I opted to make something I thought would help keep the water from freezing in our packs on the trip.
I used fleece left over from a previous project and cut to fit each of our water bottles (all different shapes and sizes) and sewed the side and bottom seams. I added a small pocket for an elastic closure at the top.
The bottles don't stand up perfectly but they'll work well-enough for us on the trail I think.
I ran a little short on material for the large bottle but I'm hopeful it covers enough to keep the contents from freezing.
Do you have any helpful winter gear suggestions? I'm always interested to hear how other people manage their gear in winter on the trail. Post a comment if you've got a tip to share!
I had a case of mild frostbite last year after sledding in sub-zero temperatures with only a thin pair of gloves. I had a couple of blisters and darkened spots on my hands once I started thawing out, which was a painful experience that lasted days. I have found since that incident, my fingers are cold more often than they ever used to be.
Last week L.'s feet got wet inside her boots and she decided to continue playing outside instead of changing her socks (and boots - she has a couple of pair for just this reason). She never complained about her feet being cold so I had no idea. The next day her swollen toes were red and hot to the touch with a couple of small bruise-like patches on them. She complained about how much her feet hurt for a couple of days afterwards and said she learned her lesson about changing her socks and boots when they get wet inside now.
Yesterday I was chatting with my friend Carl, an avid hiker who takes lots of cold weather hiking trips, about my family's frostbite experiences and he shared his thoughts about Merino wool. I decided it was a necessary investment and he offered a couple of suggestions on discount locations to buy it.
I'm sure those knowledgeable outdoor enthusiasts are asking why we do not have these kind of wool socks and gloves.
The cost. They're about $15-20 for a pair of socks.
Not to mention my kids have never been able to keep a matching pair of socks together. They throw them around and make a fashion statement out of mismatched pairs and I've accepted the fact that losing socks in our house is inevitable.
So spending a lot of money on a single pair of socks has not been something I've been eager to do.
But yesterday I found out the LL Bean outlet in Portland has a GREAT sale going on for Smartwool socks. They range from $7.95-12.95 on sale right now.
I bought a pair for each member of my family (shhhh, they're Christmas presents so don't tell them!) and have hopes that each of us can keep track of a single pair of socks this winter.
Everything gets canceled and it turns in to a quiet day at home doing things you usually don't have time for.
L. took advantage of her time today by starting a new sewing project - a Raggedy Ann doll. She received the pattern and all the material supplies from grandma yesterday for Christmas and she couldn't wait to get started.
She had a productive morning cutting out all her fabric pieces and embroidering the doll's face and heart.
We also played outside for a while. The girls opted to sled while I decided to ski a loop around my neighborhood to check out the road conditions.
No plows had been by all day so the road was a nice surface to ski on this afternoon.
But the plows finally did make it around to us a few minutes ago and now we have a large snow wall blocking our driveway entrance. I guess I'm going to have to do some shoveling before Fino gets home. He's going to have his hands full snow blowing our long driveway, cutting a path to the chicken coop and digging the trash barrels out of the snow.
But it's great for our cross country skiing adventures. We're planning on exploring some new trails this weekend.
Where do you like to cross country ski in the Portland area?
The Mountain Division Trail had perfect conditions for cross country skiing yesterday.
We visited our favorite hill near the Standish trail head...
... and thoroughly enjoyed our first trek on the MDT this season.
With more snow inland today, it looks to be another week of great skiing conditions in southern Maine.
TRAIL REVIEW
Trail: Mountain Division Trail, Standish
Length: approx. 5 miles one way
Grooming: No, but snowmobiles pack down snow so it has a groomed feel to it
Parking: Parking at Johnson Field on Route 35 in Standish
Fee: None
Equipment Rentals: none
Bathroom: Porta-potty at Johnson Field
Ski Level: Beginner
Dog-friendly: yes, on a leash
Kid-friendly factor: GOOD
The Porta-potty is a nice feature at the trailhead. Snowmobiles are permitted on these trails so families skiing with kids should stay to one side and keep an ear out for approaching snowmobiles. My family has found snowmobilers on this trail to be curteous and slow down around skiers.
Kid Rating: Both girls gave this trail 4 stars (on a scale of 1-the worst to 5-the best).
G: It's fun. I like the hills on the trails but I don't like the snowmobiles so much. Their gas really smells when they pass us.
L: I like going down the hills. Some are big and some are just little. They are mostly easy to ski up but there is one big hill that is kind of hard.
Other: The warming hut at Johnson Field is a nice place for a snack break on a cold day.
On Saturday L. and I took a trip to Pineland Farm to pick up our ski club's rental order from the Maine Winter Sports Center and decided to take advantage of the trip to do some skiing there as well.
The clouds were so low in the ski it felt like we could almost touch them.
There were only a couple of bare spots on the trail even after four days since the last storm.
L. stopped to decide which way we should go.
We opted for the easy downward slope and into the open field.
But eventually we had to make our way up the big hill.
And this hill may not look very big, but at the end of an hour of skiing, it was a killer. Of course L. made it all look so easy -- all 65 pounds of her.
My 10-year-old is already kicking my butt skiing this year ... which is a weird but not surprising since she is getting older and is in much better shape than I am. I need to get exercising soon because L is going to start gloating and I'm not ready for that just yet.
Afterwards L. and I enjoyed some fresh baked bread and soup from Foley's Bakery at Pineland's Welcome Center.
Skiing before Christmas is such a nice change from the snowless Decembers of the past few years. And it's a lot more fun getting in shape on skis than walking loops around my neighborhood.
On Sunday I went through all the snowpants from the storage closet in anticipation of the snow yesterday. I had the girls try on the entire stockpile of snow pants (10 pairs total), all of varying sizes I've picked up from second-hand or end-of-season clearance sales over the years.
Each of the girls found two pairs of snowpants that fit them and I was psyched (no last minute runs to the store on Sunday for me ;-). The bummer was that all those snow pants were dark. Actually 3 of the 4 are black, which also look just like Fino's snowpants.
I thought that everyone having similar looking snowpants was going to be a problem this year. So the girls picked out some ribbon and tied it on to their stuff so we could identify them hanging on the rack.
This may or may not help keep us organized this winter but I thought it was worth a shot. But I ran short of ideas on how to find matching gloves and mittens in the big box we have.
The kids have been outside in the snow all morning and the whole family is enjoying the first snow fall of the season. (And it sure is a whopper!)
The kids had fun sledding on the small hill in our backyard this morning.
The ducks didn't seem to mind the snow either.
L. demonstrated her snow angel making abilities and gave it her own special touch. She is my creative thinker who is more self-aware than I sometimes give her credit for. I think it's more me thinking she doesn't really understand the implications of her ideas about things even though I'm pretty sure she does...
The girls gave roller skiing a try for the first time this weekend with Mike from the Maine Winter Sports Center. It is what nordic and biathlon competitors do when there isn't any snow to train on and we were curious to learn more about it.
Roller skis are a shorter version of cross country skis that have wheels on the bottom of the skis. The bindings on roller skis match the NNN and SNS style of cross country boots.
The girls brought their cross country ski boots and as soon as they locked into the bindings of the roller skis, they both commented on how weird it felt.
"This doesn't exactly feel like skiing mom. It feels kinda weird."
There are two basic kinds of roller skis - classic and skate. G. tried a classic pair of roller skis that had a rachet mechanism on the front wheel so she couldn't roll backwards. She liked the sound of that safety feature. L. tried a skate style with wheels that rolled both forward and back. After watching both the girls I noticed that G.'s movements were a little choppy while L. seemed to roll better. It looked to me G. was working twice as hard as her sister to glide along the pavement so I agreed with her when she said L.'s roller skis were better.
We walked beside each of the girls at first but they got the feel of the roller skis since they have done quite a bit of cross country skiing and they like to inline skate.
The trick of either ski is that there is no break built on to the roller ski to stop. That made the girls a little nervous but on the flat, smooth surface of the driveway, stopping was not a big issue.
After the girls took off their borrowed roller skis, we watched the competitive rollerskiers race around Pineland Farms for the Duathlon race. The girls and their friend (her dad was rollerskiing for fun with the competitors) cheered everyone on as the racers made three loops around Pineland Farms' course.
The girls waited for a long time to get an up-close look at the trout but they weren't aggressive enough to get inside the viewing window. Like I said, the place was crazy busy.
We didn't drive all the way to Freeport yesterday just to go to L.L. Bean though, we also went to hook up with Mike Yeo from the Maine Winter Sports Center.
The Maine Winter Sports Center had a demo running to promote their biathlon program for youth. We were told a biathlon group for 10 years+ will be starting up in southern Maine this winter and more information about that should be coming out soon.
Shooting sports are not something my girls are drawn to but after a little encouragement, both girls gave the computer demo a try.
L. did well for a first try at target shooting (she had a little assistance from a MWSC staffer). She scored high enough to get her name on the prize board, which she was quite pleased about.
Fino had to check out all the rifles in the new Hunting and Fishing store (he's a former army guy and likes to target shoot). Being typical females, we appreciated the decorations more than the merchandise there.
The girls spotted these lights - which were all over the place in a variety of shapes and sizes - and thought they were nice.
Just the other day I received an email from "Ben" asking me what kind of boots my kids wore to keep their feet warm and dry because, "They always look so warm and happy."
Ben's daughter had gone out hiking this winter and had a bad experience with her boots. Here's an excerpt from his email:
This past Winter, I took her hiking with me in the woods. It was a
disaster. We were in extremely deep snow and, unfortunately, the boots
I bought for her turned out to be completely useless. They leaked very
badly. By the time we got home, her feet were completely drenched and
frozen.
I emailed Ben back explaining that my kids have second-hand boots and one pair doesn't even have a brand name on it. I think for us the key has been that the boots the kids wear are tall (almost to their knees) and that they wear elastic bottom snow pants over their boots to prevent snow from getting inside the top of them. I also shared that we are often on cross country skis on the trail most of the time so they don't sink in the snow as much as they would in regular boots.
But then this morning L., who was helping to load up the car for our vacation, came up with this plan to keep the deep snow from getting in her boots (apparently she didn't "feel like putting on snowpants").
Those would be a couple of fleece scarves ties around her legs.
Do you have a suggestion for Ben about good winter boots and/or ways to keep your kid's feet warm and dry in the snow?
[Of course, this will be advice to follow for next winter as this will hopefully be the last of the white stuff this year.]
We finally made it to Shawnee Peak with Fino yesterday (he took the afternoon off from work). It's taken us all winter to coordinate the family schedule for us to downhill/board together.
It was windy when we arrived around 4 p.m. (love the Monday Madness special) and the wind chill temps plummeted by the minute. But that didn't stop us from having a good time. And in what seems to be tradition now, I took some video of the kids while I was boarding down the mountain myself. I'm beginning to think I'm pretty good at multi-tasking on the mountain while not hurting myself in the process. But there will be no video of me getting off the chair lift; I still can't master that one.
But L. was still a little hesitant about downhill skiing again on this trip. She hasn't forgotten her fall earlier this season and it took me suggesting she had "magic gloves" to get her to loosen up. Actually, I was in rare form on the chair lift with the girls yesterday.
I know, I was being weird but I had worked all morning so I was a little tired...
And as I said, I fall a lot getting off the lift (more often than not I must admit). I really wish other skiers and riders would heed the signage at the top of the mountain that asks them to move out of the way once they are off the lift. I get myself so worried I'm going to plow into someone (with only one boot strapped in, I don't have as much control -- and I'm not the best boarder to begin with ...) and hurt the people who stand right at the base of the lift. Instead I end up trying to stop before I have control off the chair and trip myself up. But it's not always other people either; sometimes I fall when no one is around - I'm special that way.
On one of those falls I managed to knock one of my bindings out of whack. But luckily Fino had a penny in his pocket and managed to fix things up well enough for me to get down to the bottom of the mountain.
My handy-man hero.
He nearly got frostbite trying to fix my binding because the wind chill was so strong and cold and he couldn't manage the penny and bindings with his gloves on. But it turned out that the penny was more worse for the wear than he was.
And as we were taking off our gear at the end of the night, G. reported that her boots had really hurt. I think she's due for some new ones next year since this is the second year she's had issues with those boots.
We joked that she was bitten by a vampire on the mountain. And note the Christmas socks, just like last year :-)
Oh, and I have to mention this because L. was so insistant that I could not cover up her old trail pass with the new one.
Armed with spray bottles mixed with food coloring and cold water - along with cake molds from the kitchen - the kids and their friends spent a fun afternoon outside creating works of art in the snow.
The kids used cake molds to create snow "sculptures" and then used the spray bottles to make them more colorful. The kids loved the "paint." And it was quite amusing to realize that they didn't realize my friend Meg had recycled the bottles. L. thought it really was window cleaner at first (see video).
One of the girls preferred to make her own design in the snow.
The KEY to making the snow "paint" is putting the mixed recipe (see below) into the spray bottle and putting the bottle into the fridge for at least an hour before the kids are going to use it. I've tried snow painting before with less than ideal results but by keeping the mixture COLD, it works a whole lot better.
And while the others were painting, G. discovered the perfect snowball maker - a kitchen laddle.
She scooped them out quickly and every one came out perfectly.
Snow Painting Fun
Snow Paint Recipe
* spray bottle
* Food coloring
Fill each spray bottle with COLD water Put several drops of food coloring in the bottle (the more drops, the darker the color) Place bottle in refridgerator for an hour or leave outside for a while so that the mixture will be cold. This ensures the "paint" won't melt the snow. Spray the snow with your colors to create a fun work of art!
We've been cross country skiing weekly with our Ski Club and it seems every meeting we have one of the kids in our Ski Club brings their dog. Usually that's the highlight of the day for G. (she's been asking for years to get a dog, which is not going to happen right now because of the managerie we already have).
This past week little Oliver went out on the trail with us and G. was in her glory with him.
The favorite activity for the entire Ski Club though is the hill about 1/4 mile from the Standish trailhead on the Mountain Division Trail. It's just steep enough to be fun without the kids feeling out of control and not too difficult to climb back up. We seem to spend a whole lot of time there this year.
And sometimes we really clog up the trail with people - and pets - so that the snowmobiles have a hard time getting by us.
There's always a look-out at the bottom and top of the hill to signal a rider that we're there. It's a fairly visible place for the snowmobilers to see the group so it works out well for us.
Favorite hill on Mountain Division
But like I've said before, we've never really had a problem sharing the trail with the snowmobiles. Overall the riders have slowed down, offered a friendly wave and moved on down the trail. Only once or twice have we had a machine run by us too fast, which considering how much time we spend on the Mountain Division Trail (at least twice a week for a couple of hours each time), that's not bad odds (there's always going to be rogue in the pack regardless of the activity).
Probably one of the funniest things I've seen this year in our Ski Club is L.'s "ski running." Our group has kids that range in age from 5 to 14 and L. can outrun them all on cross country skis (not to mention that she has outrun nearly every adult as well including me and her dad).
She has wax-less skis this year which I think gives her a little more traction and she just seems to have the running rhythm. It cracks me up. And the other kids, who try to run on their skis like it's something to aspire to (really, I try to encourage them to glide!), can't seem to catch her. L. thinks this is extremely funny and I caught a bit of her "act" on video (which I have to say isn't as fast as she has done previously, we had skied for over an hour by the time I got around to recording her).
Ski Running
That's my L., always sharing her interesting perspective on things.
We decided to try-out the groomed trails at Smiling Hill Farm as a change of pace from our usual cross country skiing adventures on the ungroomed trails. The reason we haven't tried out any groomed trails lately is because, well, it costs money and we live on a pretty tight budget. But with G.'s WinterKids passport discount (her trail pass was free and her sister's half price) the girls and I decided to splurge and compare the differences in skiing experience.
No look-outs required - the kids liked skiing next to each other (not in a line like we usually do on the Mountain Division Trail) because they didn't have to watch out for snowmobiles. They felt more relaxed to simply chit-chat and look around for animal tracks (we found lots here!). And of course we had to stop and watch the planes heading into the jetport (see video).
Grooved tracks were "cool" - The girls really enjoyed the grooved tracks for double-poling. They loved the speed of double-poling but didn't have the upper-body strength to do it for long. I personally found the tracks a little hard for regular skiing and stuck to the middle of the trail to avoid them.
Map marker woes - The trail map seemed easy enough to follow with multiple loops and paths to follow but it was a little more challenging once we were out there. The markers were few and far between with many intersections not having any. We opted to ditch the map and just ski around for a while until we got tired. And it turned out not to be that hard to find our way back; the smell of the cows/manure made choosing our direction easier (the barns are next to the ski shop) and we did find a couple of markers on the way back (the girls had quite a few comments about the "stinky cows" by the end of the day).
The dairy store - The highlight of the afternoon for the kids was getting a small ice cream cone. We all really build up a sweat cross country skiing, even on the coldest days. So an ice cream after a trail run isn't so strange a choice for us.
Mom's two-cents - I agreed with the kids that the groomed trails had a lot of great features but explained to them it was not something we could do with frequency because of the cost (which will always include the ice cream because we can not pass the dairy store without stopping for our favorite treat). But we do hope to make another visit before the snow season is over.
The kids really liked the grooved tracks and did quite a bit of double-poling, something they hadn't done much of on other trails.
We see deer tracks often enough in our own backyard and on other trails...
... but the wild turkey tracks were an exciting new discovery for the kids.
The trail markers were small and infrequent but we did find a few, enough to lead us back to the trailhead when we decided to leave.
Eating an ice cream cone outside in February isn't all that strange after an afternoon of cross country skiing.
The girls and a couple of their Juliette Girl Scout friends went to Winter Fun Day at Camp Pondicherry yesterday on a truly picture perfect winter day.
Camp Pondicherry's Chalet offers a spectacular view of the area.
The girls did some sledding, which was a little tricky in the deep snow. They had to work pretty hard to make a sledding track down the hill. That's the problem with the less-traveled sledding hills and no snowmobiles to pack down the snow.
And building a snow cave wasn't easy either but as you can see by the girls' faces, they thought it was well-worth the effort.
There were about 30 girls who had a hand in building the snow cave throughout the morning hours so by the time lunch was over, it was quite large.
We also tried snowshoeing for the very first time and my girls and I really enjoyed it but we all agreed cross country skiing was more fun, especially going downhill.
But running is a whole lot easier -- and more fun -- on snowshoes!
We also saw a bunch of animal tracks on the camp's Waterfall Trail.
It was an active day outdoors but the kids did have some indoor fun too making fleece scarves.
And yeah, we were tired by the time we got home yesterday but we did manage to put together a few video clips of our adventure.
We went sledding at USM's Gorham campus and had fun until L.'s last run ended in her flying off her tube and hurting her back and me getting frostbitten fingers (they still hurt).
The hill on the campus was tons of fun except for the man-made bump on the run. The kids initially enjoyed flying over the bump because quite literally they went airborne. But after a few runs the kids opted to avoid the hill's bump. Even on an inflated tube, it was still a rough landing to take.
The hill was just steep enough for the kids to enjoy the speed but not so hard to climb back to the top.
I have Gortex snowboarding gloves (which I put on after the first run to replace my cheaper gloves) but they don't have fleece lining. They usually keep me warm on the slopes because I'm usually sweating under my gear while I board and the gloves are great because they don't ever feel wet. But they are not so warm while sledding. My fingers got so cold that it was painful; and today they still hurt alot. I think you can tell how cold it was by simply looking at the well bundled-up kids.
L. thinks it is hysterically funny that she doesn't *have to smile* for pictures when she's got all her gear on. Both girls wore multiple layers yet they were still cold. The wind chill really was a killer yesterday.
Just before it was time to go, L. and her friend C. went down the hill and couldn't steer their tube around the bump on that run. L. flew off the tube and got the wind knocked out of her. I got video of her fall before running over to make sure she was OK. Her back was still sore last night but she was in good spirits. She spent some time on the massage chair in the living room and talked about her accident for our YouTube video.
The kids are in snow-heaven right now. They played for a long time out in the storm with the howling winds, strong-blowing snow and frigid temperatures. It didn't bother them a bit since they had on plenty of warm gear.
And of course they had to stress me out by burying each other in the snow - face and all.
But they're Maine kids, this is what they live for -- SNOW DAYS!
It is not an option for the girls to stay inside when it's snowing outside, no matter how hard the wind is blowing or how big the storm. At least they're getting some wear out of their ski goggles this year.
Our 4-H ski club was well-attended yesterday and it got a little tricky on the Mountain Division Trail with the snowmobilers. There were a lot of machines on the trail and our large group of kids didn't really want to ski in a single file on the side of the trail the entire afternoon.
So we ventured over to the less-traveled paths around Otter Pond and the kids really enjoyed the hill leading to the pond.
It's all about the thrill of speeding down a hill for the kids, not to mention it takes a lot less effort.
But after skiing on the pond for a while we spotted a couple of ice fishing holes that were freshly drilled. And then we saw more ... and more of them; there were at least a couple of dozen scattered all over the place.
My concern wasn't that the kids would fall through the ice - it was clearly solid - but that one of them might catch a ski tip in one of the holes and lose a ski or take a hard fall (the holes were kind of hard to spot until you were right next to them). We moved off the pond and headed back to the main trail to play it safe.
Those kids who weren't grossed-out by the dead fish wanted to know why the fisherman didn't take them home. It seemed a mystery.
We also stopped by the boat launch on Sebago Lake to see what was happening over there. The kids and I love to check-in with the winter ice fishing village that pops up on the frozen lake every year.
We even got to see an ice drill in action yesterday. Boy those things are loud.
We spend a lot of time on the Mountain Division Trail in the winter. It's near our house and the snowmobiles pack the snow down to make it decent cross country skiing terrain. Our family budget doesn't always allow for skiing on the groomed trails at Smiling Hill or Pineland (a family of 4 costs around $36 for the day trail passes at each place). Of course you get what you pay for and groomed trails make skiing easier and faster. But the multi-use Mountain Division trails are a nice option for us as long as we accept its quirks and take precautions to deal with the snowmobile traffic.
These trail signs appear at regular intervals along the Mountain Division Trail but we occasionally see an ATV as we did this weekend.
Because the trail is popular with snowmobiles, we are always listening for the sounds of one approaching and try to ski to one side of the trail to allow for moving out of the way quickly. I remind the kids whenever they start moving into the middle of the trail to get back to the side because snowmobilers sometimes go too fast and don't always see us at first (but in our experience, that is not often -- the motorized people are usually courteous and slow down and wave as soon as they spot us).
On the Standish end, there are many smaller trails off the main one that wind around Otter Pond. Those smaller trails are not typically used by snowmobiles so it's nice to have some time away from them. Of course we had to forge our own path but the kids still enjoy the follow-the-leader games.
About an hour into our trek on Saturday Fino and G. realized that they had each others poles. G. has grown so fast that we've had a hard time keeping up with equipment she feels comfortable with (she prefers longer poles and they are nearly the same size as her dad's).
And part of sharing the trail means using our common sense. For instance, there is a portion of the trail with a fence between the tracks and trail. As we headed towards that part, we realized that if a snowmobile was coming in the other direction we had no place to get out of the way except to jump down a large embankment. We opted to ski onto a smaller trail through the trees to avoid that area.
The benches placed at various intervals along the trail are great for water breaks so we can sit down without having to take off our skis.
And the small hills on the trail are enjoyable to ski down but not so big that the return trip up is fairly easy.
The kids had so much fun on Saturday during our trail ride (we did about 2.5 miles round trip) that we took our 4-H Ski Club onto the trail instead of playing our usual games on the field. We did less than half the distance we did the day before but with all the talking and laughing the group did, they said it felt like they skied a couple of miles.
Fun and games ruled our 4-H Ski Club meeting yesterday with a decision that next week we'll be doing some skiing on the trail.
We did a review of basic skills for the newbies that included falling down and getting back up.
Then the kids played a push-the-ball game with badminton rackets. Those rackets get more use during the winter than they do any other time of year.
And of course we had to play a round of the well-loved Amoeba Tag game (the "it" person tags another and then that player has to hook arms and ski together to tag others). Players only wear one ski and by the end of the game everyone is out of breath not only from skiing, but from laughing.
Amoeba Tag
But the most requested game again this year is skiing through hoola hoops. Even the adults can do it (Fino missed getting a clip of me but he caught another dad's success with the activity).
L. had a friend in kindergarten that introduced her to a special snow snack - a scoop of snow with maple syrup drizzled on top. Having been educated ad nauseam about acid rain when I was in grade school, I've discouraged L. from making this snack each winter.
But after being nagged relentlessly about her desire to eat her "favorite thing" again this year, I gave in and let her make it the other day.
On Tuesday afternoon there was finally enough snow to do some cross country skiing. We got together with a few friends who are novice skiers and decided to teach them some games to learn how to get comfortable on their skis.
Playing games and being silly is way more important to my kids than actual technique or skiing on groomed trails. Their friends agreed while playing a gliding game on one ski and then practicing falling down and getting up. It's amazing how much fun it is to throw yourself on the ground and then pop back up.
We took the day off yesterday. We had to -- it actually snowed and the mountain had powder conditions to ski and ride! But I should have known we'd have issues as soon as I woke L. up.
First she simply wouldn't get out of bed. "I'm soooooo tired mommy." Then she did not want to eat breakfast but I made her sit down with a bowl of cereal while I packed lunches. She begrudgingly ate a bowl of Trix, not the most nutrious breakfast, but at least it was something.
Then after finally getting everything loaded in the car, which seemed to take longer than I remember (it has been a year since the last trip to the mountain) we headed to Shawnee Peak.
After arriving and getting ourselves organized, we headed to the chair lift. L. was still a little grouchy and I thought her complaints about her new (used) skis being "too slippery" was just a reflection of her having one-of-those-days.
But then halfway down our first run L. took a tumble. It took her a few minutes to calm down enough to let me check her out. She was OK, just a bit shaken up. She did manage to get herself down the mountain on her own even though she cried all the way.
We took a break at the base of the mountain for a few minutes and G. reviewed for L. how to turn and stop on her skis. I thought it best to take another run before a snack break simply to get L. over the unpleasantness of her fall. She agreed with a candy bribe and we headed back up the mountain on the chair lift.
That's when the next tragedy hit.
L. took off her glove to open her candy and whooosh. It flew right off the chair lift. After a lot of crying, we reached the top of the mountain with L. wearing one of my gloves.
I did OK as a one-handed snowboarder.
After retrieving L.'s glove from the very friendly chair lift operator at the base of the mountain, I decided it was time to have a snack. When someone is in a grouchy mood I feed them. It usually worked for my grandmother and I've had some success with it myself.
L. ate some fruit and half a sandwich and she thankfully was back to her old, happy self again. We pretended to start the day over again and had 3 hours of enjoyable runs down the mountain.
It was a beautiful, cold day at the mountain and the snow machines were working hard.
... to cross country ski on the rough trails in our backyard but we did it anyway yesterday. We'll take any amount of white stuff to break out our skis this winter.
I scored a couple of downhill skiing helmets and a pair of cross country ski boots for G. at Goodwill this week. It's hit or miss at second-hand stores for me in finding the gear we need for our various sports interests. New equipment is simply not in our family budget so I'm always (even in summer) on the lookout for winter sports equipment, the most priciest activities for us.
My friend Meg has great luck buying quality ice skates on e-Bay but every time I bid on a pair (not often I admit), I never "win" them (or they go beyond the price of buying them new so I stop bidding). But then one day I found a pair of Glacier skates at Goodwill - in L.'s current size - right after her big fall on the ice with her poor-quality skates. I celebrated for a week about that find (Glaciers are approx. $55 new and I got them for $3.99).
After comparing notes with Meg and other friends, we determined the best way to get used sports equipment for kids is to be diligent with the used sources you have the best luck with. Unless you're always checking in the store or online, you aren't necessarily going to find what you need at the price you want to pay. The other key point with online bidding is knowing how much the gear costs new and that you figure shipping into the overall cost.
And yes I agree, buying used gear can be a time-consuming!
At the moment I'm on a serious mission to find quality downhill ski boots for G. (and possibly new skis). She wears a woman's shoe size and adult gear is much pricier. I'm looking into selling her old boots to off-set the cost of a new pair at Play It Again Sports. It might be the best way to go for us but I'm also going to explore some other (new to us) options. MaineToday's Marketplace and Maine's craigslist are both local sites so if I find something I like for the right price, I can pick them up and avoid shipping costs. (Can you tell I hate paying for shipping?)
Do you have a favorite place/site to get used gear?
We had some snow for a trail run on our cross country skis yesterday with our ski club.
The group is learning some ski skills and we had a lot of fun with it. We all took a turn skiing through a hoola hoop.
At one point we shared the trail with some horses which the kids thought was pretty cool.
A couple of kids from the group also had fun with the GPS unit we brought. They tracked how far we skied to the warming hut and their speed. Next time they hope to beat their maximum speed of 3.8 mph.
The quote of the day was from G.:
"Moooom, I stepped in horse poop with my ski boot! (pause) Oh, it's OK. It was old. It came right off."
I'm working on my next column about snowboarding and downhill skiing. Last year I took a video clip while snowboarding down the mountain. And I have to confess, I was a nervous wreck about it. I had the office camera and I was afraid I'd wipe out and break it.
I fall down a lot on my board but have been told by several people that, "you're not learning if you're not falling." Well I've certainly done A LOT of "learning" in the three years I've been boarding.
But, I did make it through that taping without breaking anything (me or the equipment) and dubbed the clip Not the Easiest Thing
This year I decided to do another mountain action video on my board. At some point last winter it finally clicked in my brain how to switch edges without losing my balance. Now I'm a much better rider, relatively speaking of course -- I'll never be ready for the terrain parks.
If you don't know anything about snowboarding, there are two edges - toe (front edge of the board) and heel (back edge). Finding an edge and riding it is not that hard. It's the switching back and forth that gives a lot of people trouble. But, it's something every rider has to figure out.
So today I was editing this year's video clip, and I noticed a big difference in my attitude. Although I got a little too close to a Slow Down sign on the trail and had to switch edges quickly (it really is hard to see where you're going through a camera), I actually laughed about it.
Yup, I think I'm pretty cool now. Well not really, but it's nice to hope.
It was a last minute decision but we opted to go snow boarding/skiing last night. The conditions looked decent and Shawnee Peak had their Monday night special going for $10 lift tickets from 4- 9 p.m.
So we packed up our gear - and dinner - and took off.
We didn't have any candy in the house for the kids' coat pockets and I thought we ought to get something before we got to the mountain. It's been my experience that a bit of sugar keeps my little people happy on the slopes. So I decided to stop at Reny's in Bridgton on our way.
Now I have to admit, I never did understand what the big deal was about Reny's. Well, now I know...
L. picked out Swedish fish and G. went for the Sugarbabies. We did a little taste-testing before the packages made it into their coat pockets and I was in shock. They were soft, chewy and get this, FRESH. They didn't actually try to pull my teeth out and I can't remember the last time that happened. Reny's is now on my list of places to stop on our next trip.
We made a couple of runs and stuck to the easy trails. We're not a particularly adventurous lot with the higher terrain. And as I have learned by observation in the past couple of years, the beginner lifts are a lot less crowded.
It was actually a pretty uneventful trip. No blisters on my hands (I tightened my boot laces with gloves on... very good suggestion Fino), no lost skis on the chair lift and no Christmas tree imprints on anyone's leg. All-in-all not much drama.
But the conversations on the chair lift, now those were amusing.
Prompted by taking a couple of photos of some Flat Stanleys on the chair lift, we discussed some of the funny pictures we've taken of flats over the past year. The pigs still rank at the top of my list.
On another ride, L. was whining about the rest of us going too fast down the mountain. Usually she's the one bombing down but yesterday she was a little tired. I think she was just in the mood for some extra attention but I couldn't shake her off the subject. So I told her she was being like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. She didn't care for that much but it got G. going on assigning our family members to people from that movie. G. decided she was Daphne, Fino was Fred and then she declared that Toddy (the blind cat) was Scooby. Apparently Toddy and Scooby are just the same.
"Mommy, they both like to eat all the time!"
Poor Toddy, he wasn't even on the chairlift to defend himself. Although give the chance, the girls would have him up there with them.
But a question I never pondered until L. did was,
"Why is Scooby so skinny if he eats all the time?"
Wish I knew...
Oh, and on the way home, L. thought the funniest thing about our night was "Foo City." Just an FYI to the supermarket in Bridgton, your D needs a new bulb.
The skiing conditions were perfect for an outing today so the kids and I took the day off to go to the mountain.
At the beginning of the winter I mapped out the best lift ticket deals at the ski resorts within an hour's drive of our house. Shawnee Peak specials are great on Monday nights ($10/adults from 4-9 p.m.) and Wednesdays (all day) when an adult buys a lift ticket at full price, the junior skis free (and the second junior is only $10). And then King Pine has great specials too with skiing on Saturday nights from 4-9 p.m. for $39 for a family of 4; and 2 for 1 specials on Tuesdays.
So since it was Wednesday, we headed to Shawnee Peak.
L. and I were heading down the mountain when G. snapped this picture with her digital camera. She was feeling quite smug that she can now handle a camera on the slopes.
We're never without some Flat Stanleys to entertain these days. The conditions really were ideal and we spent about 5 hours skiing/boarding.
I got a blister from tying my snowboard boots -- and they still weren't quite tight enough.
L. lost a ski getting onto the chair lift. A helpful girl in the chair behind us brought it up the mountain for her. It was an interesting glide off the chair lift for L. with one ski.
If you look closely, you can see that G. had an imprint of a Christmas tree on her leg from her tight ski boot. "Mom, I am SO not wearing these socks skiing again!"
The Portland area hit a record high temperature of 52 degrees yesterday so it made me laugh to read today's story about warming up cold feet. We certainly didn't need any of the suggested remedies at our cross country ski club meeting yesterday.
Even with the balmy temperatures, the ski club still chose to hold their meeting. The group has had to cancel so many times this winter for lack of snow that the fact that there was at least enough white stuff to cover a portion of the field where the club's meetings are held, we went for it.
After a few ski games, the kids (and adults) started sweating and lots of us ditched our coats. And the snowman the kids had made before the ski games started was nearly headless by the end of the meeting. The snow was melting that fast.
After playing games and skiing around the field for an hour most of the kids were down to their t-shirts. G. said that although she got really wet, she didn't mind falling down. "I'm hot. The snow cools me down mom."
I never thought we'd have to worry about rolling around in the snow to cool down in January....
Our cross country ski club started yesterday and the snow conditions weren't great in the open field where we held our meeting. The light coating of powder only disguised frozen/ice ruts from snowmobiles so it was a bit like being on a mini-mogul course. But the kids didn't seem to mind because they had a great time playing tag and relay games on their skis.
We played a relay game that required hitting a ball down the course with a small racket. It was a good way to teach the kids to bend their knees.
And although we all did our share of falling down (me included), the hardest part for most of us was getting back up -- so we did a lot of practicing...
Cross country skiing and disc golf, an interesting combo
What do you get when you combine cross country skiing and disc golf? An entertaining afternoon with a lot of laughs, especially when I heard G. lamenting ducks. But you'll have to wait until my next column is finished to find out what that was about....
I would admit that it would have been handy to have been an octopus while playing the game. I needed the extra hands to manage the ski poles (which I ended up ditching in the parking lot), score card and pencil, golf disc and camera. And we all agreed that it was no small effort to make tracks in 11 inches of ungroomed snow on cross country skis.
We took a lot of wipe outs on the course and ended up dumping the skis after 6 holes. It was a serious cardio workout and we were wiped out with the duck-walking up the course's hills. But we did play a few more holes in our boots before we headed home.
We took Robot Bunny out to play the game with us. He's been a bit neglected lately with all the Flat Stanley comings and goings. But he's back in action. There is something to be said for being able to stand up on your own.
Flat things require a lot more hands-on attention....
When I got home from the office yesterday afternoon Fino and the kids were already out on their cross country skis. The kids' skis arrived on Thursday (we rent them) and we were psyched they came in time for the snow storm yesterday.
But when the kids came through the door after their ski adventure around the neighborhood, they were wiped out. Along with using muscles they hadn't used in a while, they told me that their skis weren't working correctly.
"They aren't sliding right," G. complained.
It turned out Fino hadn't waxed the skis before the kids strapped them on so last night he spent a couple of hours taking care of the wax issue for all of our winter gear - 4 pairs of cross country skis, 2 pairs of downhill skis and both of our snowboards.
Fino's thoughts after he was done with the task? "Man, that's a lot of f***ing gear to wax."
I'm not a fan of math. The day I learned that computer science courses met my undergraduate "math and science" degree requirements, I never took another traditional math class again.
I can figure out sale prices easily, having spent my entire life in search of a good sale. But when faced with figuring out cross country ski boot sizes, I realized I had forgotten basic math.
I collected foot lengths for each child in a ski club I organized for my kids' 4-H club. I was told by a friend that the best way to figure out accurate cross-country boot sizes was to have the child's foot length in inches.
Everyone in the group emailed me their sizes and I sat down last week to put in our group's order to rent all the boots and skis through the Healthy Hometowns Program.
Originally I thought I could skip my own kids' measurements because I knew their downhill boot sizes. Nope. Cross-country ski boots use Euro sizes.
I did a web search for a conversion chart from MONDO (downhill boot size chart) to Euro but that proved time-consuming because G. wears an adult size and L. wears a child's size. Finding a chart that included the full range of sizes wasn't a quick thing to find, although I did track one down.
But that really was a waste of time. I should have just measured their feet in inches like everyone else.
I moved on to the other kids' sizes. According to the directions from my friend, I had to take the length in inches, add 1/8" and then convert that number to centimeters to figure out the Euro boot size.
Note to self: Have everyone send me their foot size in centimeters next year.
But OK, I could do the conversions as soon as I figured out first how to convert fractions to decimals and then figure out how many centimeters equaled an inch. This was not something I knew off the top of my head. Actually there was not one person I asked last week that knew the answer to either equation.
1 inch = 2.54 centimeters
1/8 = .125
I did the first size conversion with my trusty calculator and then decided to do another web search and found sites that did the fraction conversion and another for the inches to centimeters conversion.
After figuring all the sizes out and placing our group's order, I treated myself to a nice bowl of chocolate cookie dough ice cream and thought about how much I love the web .....
How much will our winter sports gear cost us this year?
Earlier this week the kids and I delved into the basement storage closet to dig out the winter sports gear. I thought it was time to figure out what fits - and what doesn't - for this fast-approaching cold-weather season. And see if we couldn't clean out the closet while we were at it.
DOWNHILL BOOTS AND SKIS
We have 6 pairs of downhill ski boots, in various sizes, accumulated over the year from yard sales, thrift shops and friends. I was relieved to find that the space required to store all the boots was worth it. Both kids have boots that fit their feet and ski bindings.
Score: 2 for 2 on both boots and downhill skis. A huge savings for us this year.
ICE SKATES
We moved on to the ice skate box that had 8 pairs of skates (from those same yard sales and friends) but luck wasn't on my side. We found skates to fit my 7-year-old but none for my 9-year-old.
Score: 1 for 2 but a friend thinks she has the size we need.
HELMETS
As I was sifting through skates that were too small for both my kids and making plans to give them away, my 9-year-old tried on her downhill ski helmet and reported that it didn't fit. It should have occurred to me that this might happen but I didn't even think about scanning yard sales this summer for new helmets. Bummer.
Score: 1 for 2. Definitely need to spend the money for a new helmet, probably about $40 on sale.
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIS
Our final winter sports gear fitting included measuring the kids' feet and height for cross-country skis. The kids participate in the Healthy Hometowns program run through Pineland Farms. It's a non-profit organization that offers cross country ski rentals to Maine kids 5-18 years old for $45 for the entire winter. This is the second year the kids are participating in a Healthy Hometowns group (kids participate in a weekly ski group in order to use the rental program). We had a great time last year and I love the fact at least one of our winter sports doesn't require year-round storage (although my husband and I have, and store, our own cross country gear).
Score: $90 for skis, boots and poles for the season for both kids.
SLEDS
These would be the items that fall out of the closet every time it's opened. The skis and boards hang on racks in the closet but we have yet to find a way to hang the various, odd-shaped sleds.
Score: "No! You can't get rid of any sleds mommy!" Mom is out-voted - sleds will continue to fall out of closet for another year.
For our active family, this year's winter gear costs are pretty low compared to what we have had to pay in past years. Tracking down used gear over the summer and making storage space for it was definitely well worth the effort.
Now we just have to save our pennies for the lift tickets....
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