Just completed is the 20th Annual Great Phelps
Ski Invitational. Hosted by Glenn Hojem and I, seven guys participated in this
year’s winter adventure from 1-4 March 2013.
Attendees, above, included from left to right, Paul
Montague, me, Gary Greene, Glenn, Mark Hanson, Bob Anderson, and Jerry Collins.
We got started with a 6.7-mile ski on Friday at the Three
Eagle trail. Saturday featured a country breakfast at our cabin, then off to
Afterglow Lake Resort where owner Pete Moline grooms the finest trails in North
America. We skied various distances and a couple of the guys enjoyed the woods via snowshoe. I skied 6.7 miles here.
We went back to the cabin for lunch and Gary, Mark, Jerry
and I went to the trail outside of Land O’ Lakes. This was a late-afternoon ski
and the sun, low in the sky, was pretty neat. Here’s an image as we skied into
the sun, heading into the Sylvania Wilderness.
On Sunday we went and walked around Klondike Days then
headed to Sayner and a rip-roaring 4.7-mile skate-ski on Razorback Ridges. This
is a challenging course and we all handled it well. The snow and grooming was
superb and we were proud to take on such a course. A few years ago this trail
would have intimidated us.
On the way back to Madison Monday, Gary and I stopped by the
Nine Mile County Forest near Wausau and skied 3.7 miles here. We were exploring
new ground on this trail. Nine Mile is a great course and we want to ski this one again.
Here I am at the sign indicating 2K to go.
In terms of my own mileage, I skied more than 25 miles on
this trip. For the season I am just over 181 miles and may have a shot at 200.
It all depends on how much snow we get and how long it lasts. Think snow!
