One of my goals for the winter was to ski every trail we groom, which is about 15k. Not just ski them all during the season, but ski them all in one shot. Yesterday afternoon seemed like a good day to give it try.

Of course, you can't ski it all in any kind of linear fashion because...well, it's not a simple circle. Since I had been thinking about this for a while, I mapped out what I thought would be the best route. It was impossible to not back track in some fashion or ski over the same trail in the opposite direction. Because of this I think I probably skied closer to 18k or so. Really, that's a guess. The actual distance doesn't matter. When I said I listed this as a goal, I had no question I could ski the distance, it was more of a case of finding the time and the opportunity. In any case, it was a really nice afternoon, so I donned my trusty waxless classic skis and made a break for it.

I ended up skiing for 1:21:00, and I managed to miss only two sections of trail each no more than 10 yards long. Since it this wasn't an officially sanctioned event, I'm going to say it counts. My goal was to ski steady and easy, which I did. I kept moving, but I wasn't going all out. I hit the easy loops around the field first. Well, they should be easy, but that meant a lot of double poling, not my strong suit. Plus, I think I was thinking about the hills I had yet to climb and that made me feel sluggish out of the gate. Once I headed up into the woods, I thought, "Well, that wasn't that bad." Really, the rest of the ski went very smoothly. I felt it on my final climb up the Sluice at the end, but I was still skiing pretty well. It was great, and I'm psyched I was able to knock it off.

For anyone that's crazy, here's an intersection by intersection breakdown:
Start at the Lodge, through the tunnel, right on the Geepers Loop to #1
to #2
to #4 around the Bellows Loop
to #6
to #4
to #5
to #23
to #25
to #2
to #5
to #8
to #12
to #7
to #11
to #12
to #14
to #19
to #26
to #34
to #45
to #47
to #46
to #53
to #52
to #47
to #46
to #45
to #47
to #52
to #55
to #56
to #49
to #44
to #40
to #50
to #54
to #50
to #54
to #38
to #40
to #33
to #51
to #52
to #47
to #45
to #34
to #33
to #29
to #38
to #25
to #23
to #29
to #27
to #26
to #19
to #27
to #26
to #19
to #14
to #8
to #11
to #7
to #6
to #4
to #2
to #1
Right around the Geepers Loop and back to the Lodge.

I think that took me longer to type than to actually ski it. Did you actually read all that? I'm not sure it was the absolutely most efficient way to get it done...I'm sure it's not...but it worked out pretty well.

- Ryan

Comments

Re: Skiing it All
by Flying Farmer on Feb 25th 2008, 9:11 am

What I want to know is who did the bookkeeping? That alone had to take 15-20 min., or did you just remember every turn?

Re: Skiing it All
by Ryan on Feb 25th 2008, 10:15 pm

Like I said, I'd been pondering it for a while, so it was easy to remember every turn. Plus, I have a strange, tracker, spidey sense about those kind of things. If I were a superhero, I'd be the Human Compass. Of course, I never have to ask for directions!

Re: Skiing it All
by Ed's Buddy on Feb 29th 2008, 9:03 am

Ed and I are all over this. I think I'll pack a lunch !! Before we head out though, we'll have to figure out what the heck trail #1, #2, #3 ... is. We know all the trails by name (crazy as they are), not by number. You just had to add that little bit of challenge in it for us did't you? I guess you just want to be sure we keep our minds sharp because . . . don't tell Ed . . . we are old!

Re: Skiing it All
by Ryan on Feb 29th 2008, 10:16 am

Hey, Ed's Buddy, the numbers are all the intersections, which should be easy to follow. Grab a map because even though you know your way around you probably don't know where intersection #38 is. The real trick, though, will be figuring out the two little pieces I missed.