I love skiing.
I used to downhill ski quite a bit, alpine skiing, but as I got older and the knees got more creaky and stiff, I decided that better use of my cardiovascular system would be to enjoy cross country skiing.
I started cross country skiing back in he 90's and got into the standard kick and glide where you're skiing in a track and double pole, and also I got very adept at the new "skating style" where you skated on the skis and double polling.
It's more of an advanced technique but since I used to do a lot of ice-skating in my younger day it came very natural to me.
I took a holiday up into the Sierra Nevada's to Mammoth Mtn Ski area that had a great mountain, but it also had a spectacular cross country ski area at Tamarack Lodge with five lakes and 30 km of groomed trails.
I decided on a weekend and rented a room, packed my ski stuff in the car, and headed to Tamarack for a couple of days.
About 10 o'clock Saturday morning as things warmed up, I got my daily pass and started to loosen up the muscles with the easy trail around the lower lake area just to warm up.
Within about 10 minutes I got my old form back and started to float across the cross country ski trail, breathing in the cool mountain air beautiful and enjoying the clear sky and the smell of pine wafting in the air.
Cross-country skiing is such a pleasant activity in the people that the people you meet on the trail are so different from the aggressive downhill skiers and the "dude" snowboarders.
Most were more of the earthy, tie die wearing, granola eating, hippie types that enjoyed skinny skiing, wearing wool sweaters and wool knickers etc., and it also offered the seniors a lot of opportunity to get good exercise instead of fighting gravity on the alpine slopes.
After a short bit and talking to various other people on the trail, I bumped into a woman who seemed to be struggling a little bit with the cross country technique.
She was a full figure gal, maybe late 40ish, very pleasant face,and beautiful red hair pouring out from under her ski cap and a gorgeous smile. She was bundled up with a big wool sweater and gloves and wool pants and was on standard cross-country skis.
I could see that she seem to be struggling a bit with her technique, so I pulled up next to her and said "Hello there, can I help you? You seem to be struggling a little bit with your technique. Might be able to assist you?"
She giggled and responded back "Well this is a heckuva thing. This is the first time I've done this and I'm just sort of trying to get my big butt squared on the skis so I don't keep falling over." Sort of try and get my 'sea legs' if you get my drift? "
I chuckled a bit, appreciating her self deprecating humor, and briefly tried to explain to her the mechanics of cross country skiing with the two poles and the track. It is sort of just like walking and that you're walking with an exaggerated gait, swinging your arms out, but when you swing your arms out, as the swing arm goes out, you plant your pole, and then push and then shift your weight off that ski onto the other ski.
We had double tracks next to each other so I said to her "Look, if you ski next to me and just mimic what I'm doing, hopefully within a few minutes you should sort of get a feel for the glide- what we call 'kick and glide' technique".
I said to her, "By the way my name is Jules, " and she responded back "Oh, Hi, my name is Sarah" and we became friends, and we started our ski adventure down the trail by the lower lake beginner area.
She struggled a little bit for the first 10 minutes and then slowly but surely, she's sort of seem to smooth out her stride, with one strange little quirk.
She seems to favor one leg just a little bit and I could not figure out why, but I didn't want to get personal.
We continued on, and started to get our heart rate up a little bit, trying to talk in short sentences, while we were huffing and puffing, with our steamy breathe blowing out like a locomotive.
It was approaching early lunchtime as we finish the first loop around the lower part of the lake and headed back toward the lodge.
She said "Hey Jules, I'm getting a little peckish and a little thirsty. Should we take a little break and go back into the lodge and see what they have to offer in the Great Room?"
"I think that's a heck of an idea. I definitely could use a bit of a recharge", I responded.
We headed back toward the lodge and we unclipped our skis, stuck them in the snowbank, and I held her hand, as we gingerly walked up the icy steps, making sure that neither one of us fell. The last thing we needed was to get hurt, at the beginning of a ski vacation.
We open the double doors to the "Great Room" which other people called the lobby, and there in the center of the Great Room was various hot chocolates, and coffee and hot apple cider and muffins and bagels with cream cheese and good carbo foods for hungry skiers who needed to pump up their blood sugar a little bit. We took off our caps and gloves and found a little table and went over to see what goodies they had?
I I had a bagel with cream cheese and she had a muffin and each of us had a hot chocolate.
I settle the tab at the front desk, And headed back to our table.
"Well thank you Jules, you did not have to do that. I could pay my own way!" I insisted "No no you're my ski date, so let me treat you to this. I have a little more experience at this than you do, so my treat" and we sat down to enjoy our carbo lunch and hot beverage. We started chatting about the ski adventure and a little bit about each other.
She noticed my Veterans cap and asked "So I see your veteran as well?" I said yes I served in the 70s.
