The lighted loops were beautifully groomed after our recent snows, but some of us had to test our uphill techniques to get into the frame for the group photo:
Enjoy the holidays with family and friends. After you have overindulged, remember that the FXC Ski your age in kilometers event will be held Saturday, 30 December.
It was -5 deg F at the stadium thermometer shortly before sunrise today. With the first Frank Soos Distance Race tomorrow, there was poor attendance for today’s workout. The freshest tracks were on the black loops so we headed that direction. LOL #1 was the first ornament that the Friday SCUM located, but no one’s hands were warmed up enough to stop and photograph it. You can see it in yesterday’s post.
It was so cold that I’m not sure if we found LOL #4 before or after we descended Black Baron. Bob Moloney, who was skating today, doesn’t snowplow (like a normal SCUM) but did two acrobatic falls in his descent of Black Baron. We saluted our 80-year-old SCUM with our poles as he finished that trail.
I found LOL #9 as my thumb was being to throb again after temporarily thawing.
Tomorrow’s Frank Soos Distance race will be conducted under Frank’s favorite conditions: cold snow and classical technique. Hope to see you there.
With the ornaments that Poles found on his ski today, the SCUM have found 7 of the 12 LOL ornaments in our first week.
Most of the trails are newly groomed and the temperature inversion is setting up again. Come and join the fun. We’ll be back on the trails tomorrow at 10 a.m. (before sunrise).
Most of the active SCUM are in their eighth or ninth decade on the planet and carry hardware within their carcasses rather than earning it in races. However, we have accepted the challenge of the LOL and have started searching for their 12 ornaments of Christmas. We will only indicate the number of the ornaments we find UNLESS there is no number visible.
The SCUM hope that skiers enjoy the newly groomed trails on Saturday at the first of the Frank Soos Distance Races. It begins at 11 a.m. and will be 7.5 or 15 km classical technique. Many of the SCUM will be participating so you won’t be last. Here’s the URL for online registration:
Today some of the SCUM didn’t make it down the Sunnyside although we headed out the Outhouse loop with them. No Hawaiian shirts were worn today.
Thanks for the reminder of Frank and Pat, who have left us for warmer locations.
After 8 weeks of immobility in a cast from toes to knee, it felt SOOO good to be skiing again. On my second outing of the season, the SCUM waited for me on the Tower loop:
Conditions were FAST today but when I fell, I was even faster getting up. However, when Bob fell, he didn’t take time to remove the telltale snow:
As I crutched inside for two months, I never expected to be skating in late November in temperatures hovering above freezing. Thanks to the groomers for making the trails skiable for a 74-year-old skier with a fractured 5th metatarsal.
Thanks to yesterday’s >3 inches of snowfall and Bill Husby’s grooming work this morning, the leaves on the Outhouse Loop are gone!
Enjoy! Don’t forget to contribute to the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks grooming fund. We want to keep Bill (and all the groomers) busy.
Some SCUM successfully finished their Equinox Marathon (half) challenge:
as did a couple of my FXC Masters teammates. Here, Norma is smiling in spite of her tumble on the trails in front of Robert (who then finished before her).
My Equinox Marathon Day was spent checking the online results of my friends and training buddies while keeping my surgical foot above my hips
because 4 days before the Equinox Marathon, I tripped on one of only two steps at my house. I momentarily landed on the top of my right foot, fracturing my fifth metatarsal. I had foot surgery 15 hours before the Equinox Marathon.
I’m non weight bearing for 6 weeks so the SCUM came to my rescue today to help remove leaves from my house’s gutters:
Supposedly, out-of-shape Bernardo did most of the climbing. The rationale was that he was the lightest of the SCUM so would be the easiest to catch if he fell:
Robert used his prize leaf scoops to fill Joanna’s garden cart with birch leaves:
and then hauling the leaves over to the composting area:
Robert, Bernardo, and Joanna made quick work of the leaves in my yard today. Hopefully we’ll get another sunny (or at least dry day) after the predicted snow and rain on Sunday and Monday. Only about half of the trees in my neighborhood have lost their leaves in spite of several days of hard frost conditions.
It’s tough not being able to weight bear on one foot. However, my friends have definitely helped me with activities of daily living in Fairbanks.
With temperatures in the low 50s, drizzle, and a nice breeze, four ascents of the FWW alpine hill (750 m total climb) was easily done by the SCUM today. With the hill fully mowed and the air free of wildfire smoke, we could chat as we ski walked. Lola was the only one to do fartlek ball chases during her ascents:
We’re always looking for additional companions as SCUM leave town for fishing, hunting, and travel Outside. We meet at Birch Hill at 10 a.m. (maybe a little earlier when it’s wet or chilly) every Friday until snow closes the Birch Hill trails to foot traffic. Tom Helmers and Bill Husby have mowed all the Birch Hill trails, and the Army contractor has done the FWW alpine hill, so conditions are great. No mosquitoes today, either.
The Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks has a Recreational Trails Program (RTP) Trails Maintenance Project grant to improve many of the trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area and on Fort Wainwright. The Happy Trails crew had completed grading and smoothing work with their mini dozer, but additional hand raking and root and brush lopping was needed. Because the contract billing deadline is 31 July 2023, the SCUM work party set off early today on the hottest weekend of the summer to provide some of the required volunteer match work.
We decided to attack the Blackhawk trail first with Dermot, Pat, and me starting from the end of the trail, and Bill, Bob, Robert, and Mike from the start of the trail. Each group had a couple of rakers and a root and brush lopper, and Bill had a portable hand saw.
When the two groups joined up again, we hiked out Little Bird trail and together worked on the inbound Chinook Trail until we got to the Sonot Connector:
All of us agreed that the trail improvements would make the trails easier to groom this winter and would offer places to scrub speed on the narrow, winding downhill sections. It was very apparent that Happy Trails is uniquely qualified to do this trail improvement work as all the grading and smoothing work will make the trails easier to groom and safer to ski this winter. Thank you, Jon and Vance Underwood.
We will be organizing a second raking and lopping work party next Saturday morning. Please contact me at contact@sonotkkaazoot.org if you would like to help us out. We will meet at 9:30 a.m. in the south Birch Hill parking lot and walk out White Cub and White Bear to the Sonot Connector to the Chinook Trail. Plan on spending about 3 hours between working and walking to and from the Chinook Trail.
Sonot Kkaazoot 