Fri, Jan 16 2004 - Canaan Valley Ski/Snowshoe Weekend (View Original Event Details)
Event Organizer(s): |  |
Jesse Allen
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Participants: |  | Jesse Allen, Gina Vachino, Debbie Haggart, KC Yi, Laura Paszkiewicz, Ronit Fix, Lisa Soule, Bernadette Wassmann, Roger van Boeyen, chanath ather, Rebecca Hill, Colin Babb, Emilio Ungerfeld, Shelley Sanner |
|  |
Write Up:In the beginning, all was null and void and
without form. That might have had something
to do with the dubious driving instructions to
find the cabin in Canaan Heights. The trip
organizer for reasons unknown even to
himself managed to try to direct Baltimore
drivers onto US 522 past Cumberland when
the correct road is US 219. One pair of intrepid
skiers took an unplanned visit to Ohio as a
result, although that actually meant going only
one or two exits too far on the interstate, and
they found their way to the correct place ahead
of the later travelers from DC and
Baltimore.
Our cabin on Friday night was a snug fit with
15, but with several of us taking spots on the
floor in rooms or on couches, we had a place
for everyone. After a late start, we all settled for
a good night's sleep, missing what proved to
be our only clear night, though those who did
take a moment to notice saw that the stars
were very bright and viewing conditions
excellent. The Milky Way was very evident
across the skyline and the multitude of stars
drowned out the familiar constellations and
shapes of the light-polluted city skies we are
so much more used to seeing.
Saturday morning got off to a slow start
between the battle for the bathrooms (there
were only two between us all) and the
limitations of trying to serve breakfast to
everyone at once. Breakfast was a simple
affair of bagels and cream cheese and a less
simple affair of finding a place to sit and enjoy
them. But we hustled out eventually to the
Highland Inn, where we picked up our
cross-country skis and heading for a full day at
Whitegrass Ski Resort, a beautiful
cross-country ski area with some 50
kilometers (that would be 30 miles for all the
nonmetrics out there) of trails winding across
open fields and into the forest. There also was
an impressive hill in the middle of the resort
that looked manageable for downhill skis, but
a rather terrifying challenge on cross-country
skis.
Most of the group took an hour out after a
quick lunch to take lessons while those
skipping lessons stopped to admire the rest
attempting 180-degree turns in a single ballet
step that we tried to imitate with amusing
results. Rather than demonstrate we should
have been in the class too, we took off into the
woods and through the orchard and later
caught up with our now more educated
colleagues. We split apart into a few different
groups heading out on different trails,
including one faction that went into the
Canaan Wilderness area on one side along a
forest access road on the Three Mile Loop, but
perhaps one mile in faced a slope that looked
easy enough to ascend but challenging to
descend without terror and crashing. This
impression was probably encouraged by the
terror and crashing of other skiers coming
down the opposite way. We took that as a bad
sign and went back to regroup ourselves and
head back to the cabin, but not before trying to
find out where Emilio had gone.
Apparently he had heard the siren call of the
large hill and made some considerable
progress in getting well up it and coming
down with a remarkable lack of tumbling. A
man of many talents!
Dinner was a pleasant affair: Gina and Jesse
each had brought a slightly different
persuasion of lasagna, as well as wonderful
fresh baked-on-the-spot Portuguese bread.
While dinner was being prepared, we each
took turns repeating the bathroom challenges
of the morning with the additional plot
complication that the last people to hit the
showers tended to get only cold water.
Cleaned, scrubbed, and well fed, we broke
into teams to play Cranium. Jesse was the
last holdout for the showers and planned to
stay only temporarily with his team. But
fascination with the game kept him in while
Colin impersonated Elvis and Marilyn Monroe
on demand, Gina
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