Recently starting a new semester in her high school, my daughter came home this week excited to be learning how to cross-country ski for gym class. I would expect that this type of classroom work is limited to the northern states – with Minnesota together with only a handful of other states offering this to students.
Cross country skiing in Minnesota is on-par with learning how to ride a bike. There are few youth in the state who haven’t been on skis for a least a few hours of their lives. I even remember a few days of this in gym class during my youth – spending far more time getting skis organized and bundled up than actually skiing around the snow-covered football field.
On Saturday, the weather was finally starting to cooperate in Minnesota, so we gathered up some stuff and decided to drive up to the Elm Creek Park Reserve for use of their dedicated cross country ski trails.
Before heading out, I dug out my old skis and made sure they had a fresh application of kick wax in the central portion of the skis. Since I use them so in-frequently, I thought the old glide wax was good enough and didn’t really feel like cracking out the old iron to re-work the ski surfaces. The fact that I even had to consider wax for my skis is a good indication regarding their age (as well as mine – ugh!).
A few rubs of Swix Wax geared toward temperatures in the high-20s, some smoothing with a synthetic cork, and the skis were set to serve me well on the Elm Creek’s well-groomed trails.
If you haven’t been to this particular park – part of the Three Rivers Park District – you are really missing out. It is a beautiful park with every possible outdoor recreation event offered. They are especially geared up for Minnesota winters offering; tubing, downhill skiing, snowboarding park, snowshoeing, and professional cross country skiing facilities. Their cross country skiing area provides several miles of trails with many of them featuring snow making (to extend the season), lighting for night skiing, and daily grooming. The trails are wide enough for both classic skiing technique and skate skiing.
We got their fairly early in the day at around 10:30am, but the main parking lot was already full and the tubing and skiing areas were packed with people. That meant that we had to park in the overflow lot, but that wasn’t a big deal as the shuttle bus came by to pick us up just as we were opening the doors to the car.
My daughter needed equipment so we rented her a set of skis, poles, and boots. I probably should have done the same, since my equipment is rather old but it is still functional. The rental counter was bustling with little kids getting fitted for snowboards and parents being pulled in three directions trying to get everyone in their group outfitted for some time on the hills.
The Elm Creek Park has several loops to follow – including an extended 4 mile trail that traverses much of the park. We chose a shortened route and stuck to the basic trails that made their way around the tubing/snowboarding areas. These trails offer a nice mix of flats and hills to keep the skiing interesting. With temperatures in the high-20s and very little wind, it was a great day to be on the skis. The only minor disruption was the morning fog – but that resulted in painting the trees with a beautiful layer of frost that made the whole trail rather picturesque.
After about 40 minutes on the trail, we looped back to the main chalet and took a breather. There was no real need to warm up since it was so mild (although I did buy a cup of hot chocolate – it is still winter, after all) so it was only meant to be a break in the exercise. The hot chocolate was there to round out the whole experience. It’s definitely a Minnesota thing.
Our final loop translated into about four total miles of skiing with a lot of friendly “hello’s” extended to others on the trail as we met. My daughter made it the whole way with very little complaining and even enjoyed the whole experience. We’ve both been so cooped-up with this whole winter, any little adventure outside it a welcome treat.
