Ski Madison!

Ski Madison!

Madison, WI

12/22/23-12/25/12

11 days to Africa

 

 

Snow, and lots of it, transformed our hometown of Madison, Wisconsin into a winter wonderland just before the holiday season.  Deb and Greg decided to capitalize on the opportunity, and they brought along cross-country skis for their holiday trip to see friends and family.  The weather was perfect for skiing, and it gave us the opportunity to get some good endurance training while soaking in some sun rays in the process. 

 

We had the good fortune of skiing at three different locations in Madison.  The first day we went to Odana Hills Golf Course.  The terrain was relatively flat and the track was fairly busy, but after an hour and a half we had made it around the track a few times and got our feet readjusted to our ski boots after only using them sparingly over the past few years. 

 

 

The next day's travels brought us to Glenway Golf Course.  Glenway is just down the block from the house where Greg grew up and only a few blocks from Deb's childhood residence.  The beauty of Glenway was in its hilly terrain.  The challenge was that the course is not groomed by a mechanical trail groomer, and therefore we either followed in the tracks made by others or blazed a trail ourselves.  Although Glenway is a smaller course than Odana, its hills and cozy confines made it a more interesting skiing experience for both of us.  Highlights of  the day's training at Glenway was following the trail that Deb says was her common route during the heyday of her high school skiing days, and watching Greg collapse into the snow after a particularly steep decline where a bump in the road shook his balance. 

 

 

After missing a day of training on skis, Deb and Greg made their way to Elver Park on Madison's far west side for what would turn out to be our longest and most entertaining day of cross-country skiing.  We spent nearly two and a half hours on skis, and we covered much more terrain that we had on either of the previous training sessions.  Elver had a nice compliment of trails.  There were hills that required work to go up and balance to go down.  There was variety in terms of the scenery and degree of difficulty for the trails.  Greg fell with greater frequency at Elver than anywhere else, even on level ground, but his spirit was undaunted.  Deb had an impressive face first slide into the snow as she made a rapid descent from atop one of the larger hills.

 

 

All of these skiing locations are home to fond memories for Deb, who recalled skiing at them with friends during high school and with her family as well.  The experience of skiing three out of four days while in town for the holidays left us both feeling hopeful that there will be snow available for skiing when we return from Africa.  We hope that some of our friends in the area will be willing to join us.