So my friend Jallie just asked me to write up a summary of my week at Bearskin lodge, and as I turned to my handy repository of summarized happenings I realized I had not put up a post about my sweet week at skiing paradise. So I'll write it up here and send it along Jallie's way for whatever nefarious ends she intends for this information.
One of the greatest parts about entering competitions is that once in a while you can win stuff (maybe more often if you are good at what you are competing at, or good at cherrypicking weak fields). This year I won a trip to Bearskin lodge up on the Gunflint trail. At first this was actually a bit stressful since taking a week off work, with a possible trip to Germany in the works, and fitting another trip into a busy ski racing season did not look that feasible. Then the Germany trip got pushed back, most of the ski season got cancelled, and the calendar opened up to go stay at this wonderful resort. When I booked my stay there was still some slim possibility of ski racing looming on the horizon, so I planned to arrive on Sunday night after racing the Vinterfest on Saturday. When the Vinterfest got cancelled Saturday instead turned into soup and egg bake preparation day so that more time on the trip could be spent skiing, reading, and playing games and less on preparing meals.
It was an odd feeling packing my skis in the car when there was no evidence of snow around me anywhere, but I had good trail reports to bolster my confidence that I would be skiing soon. I got up to Bearskin and decided to get the lay of the land before checking in. It was a breath of fresh air after a brown winter to see snow drifts and deep classic tracks. I skated around to Golden Eagle lodge and back then went to check in to my cabin.
The cabin was beautiful, with a large dining room table for eating and poring over trail maps to plan the next day's excursion. The staff did a great job getting the cabin prepared, the path to the cabin was freshly shoveled, and there was a good pile of wood stacked up for lighting the fireplace. The fireplace and multiple heating units made temperature control and clothing drying a piece of cake. The kitchen was well furnished, the beds were comfy, and there was a recliner that was great for lounging around and reading. There was a nice porch that would be great for looking over the lake in the summer, but was mostly used for ski storage on this trip. The ski trail went right by the back of the cabin, so I could just look out the window to see how the grooming and snow conditions were. There was a thermometer in the window for checking temp, a small but important detail for skiing when there is no TV or internet to get a weather report. After getting unpacked and settled in it was nice to just relax and read with no distractions for the rest of the evening.
The next morning I pulled out the classic skis and headed over to the bear cub world cup trails. Most of the central gunflint trails around Bearskin are fairly flat or rolling hills, and while there are a few bigger hills up near Golden Eagle they still are not all that technical. The bear cup trail is the exception. There are very few flats on this trail, which suits me well since double pole is my least favorite classic stride. The snow cover was very good, and the tracks were full depth and well layed out. There is a very fun descent called "Death's Door" coming down off the loop that I had to snowplow on a bit even. Then I headed over to some of the easier classic trails that connect to the Banadad trail that goes through the BWCA. The Banadad trail is very neat, sometimes the pine trees overhang the trail so much that you can't see the sky, and they are so dense it's like a wall of trees around you, a little bit claustrophobic almost. I also came across a nice little Yurt out there that would be very fun to stay at I think.
I had made a variety of soups for lunch before coming up so that I could have the most time possible to ski while I was here, but the comfy cabin made it hard to leave at times. After lunch and a bit of relaxing I headed back over to Golden Eagle to skate some of the big hills on the North end of the trail system. There is one hill that is so steep it's almost impossible to V1 up even, the single stick skate came in handy, and one of the hills on the red pine trail has a 1km section that is all uphill, and it gets increasingly steeper as you go up. Since all of these trails were designed for classic skiing only, so skating can feel a bit cramped at times if you are trying to avoid skiing over the classic track, except summer home road, which is a road in the summer as the name implies, so it makes a nice wide ski trail. It had been quite a while since I've gotten in 2 skis in a day, so it was really nice to get back, eat supper, and just relax the rest of the evening with no distractions at all.
The next day I got a nice classic ski in in the morning before my friends Dave and Emily showed up that afternoon. That night it snowed about 5", so the skiing the next morning was a slow trudge through fresh snow. It was an amazing ski with nothing but a few animal tracks breaking up the smooth white blanket covering everything. In some places the snow even covered the trees so well that you had to search to see any colors at all besides the white snow and grey sky. On our way back the sun poked through the clouds and the entire landscape glittered.
By the time we went back out for a skate ski after lunch almost the entire trail system had already been groomed. A very impressive feat considering the small grooming crew available. We put in a long ski and the sun was down completely by the time we got back to the cabin. Good thing the last couple km of trails are lighted.
By Wednesday the trail had firmed up a bit and classic tracks were set over most of the trail system. My plan was to try skiing 100km. Dave classic skied 45km with me in the morning and skated 15km in the afternoon before leaving. This left me with about 40km to ski after he left. I did the Bear cub and all the trails at Golden Eagle for about 33km, then stopped back at the cabin to throw some lasagna in the oven and grab a headlamp before heading out on Summer home road to get my final 7km in. Skiing the wide open trails at night was very relaxing, even with over 90km under my belt, but sadly there were no stars out. The cloudy skies are probably the only thing that kept it from being a perfect trip, the trails were great, and the terrain and scenery along the gunflint trail are simply amazing. I was sad to leave the cabin at the end of the week, trading in this world of snow and silence for phones, traffic, and brown grass did not seem like a good exchange.
No comments:
Post a Comment