Winter XC Ski Weekend: Day 1

Me, in the Whitegrass lodge

I headed up to West Virginia today for a ski weekend with a group of about a dozen friends. It was in part a celebration of one of us turning the big 4-0 (alas, she was the second youngest of the group), but mostly it was just a chance to hit the trails for some cross-country skiing and maybe telemark skiing and snow-shoeing.  Plans for the trip had been long in the making, but in the final analysis were a little short on details, at least to the engineering-inclined, with no particular agreed-upon arrival time. I figured I might be skiing by myself on Day 1 and so I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled into the parking lot at Whitegrass ski area and immediately spotted my friend Rob. He had car-pooled up with Suzanne and Jen and they had arrived just minutes earlier. Whitegrass is a funky 1950’s (or thereabouts) downhill ski area which today serves as a cross-country ski resort. The lodge is small and rustic. It feels like a restaurant in a college town which happens to rent skis. While the four of us were getting into our gear Peter and Gina showed up and five of us set out on one of the shorter loop trails as a warm-up (Suzanne had promised to wait and take a lesson with the other beginner, the other Peter). Rob was using telemark ski gear (a hybrid between XC and downhill). He quickly tired of trudging along the trail in the heavier gear and went back to play on the big slope. The rest of us continued the loop, passing through beautiful woods and a horse pasture with some friendly horses.

Peter, Gina, and Jen on Springer Orchard Trail

After this trail we stopped back at the lodge and met up with Peter and Suzanne, who were just finishing their lesson, Nelson and Carolyn, who had been skiing since early morning, and Dave and Cyndi. We relaxed for a little bit in the yurt (which I assume is there to help with the chronic over-crowding in the lodge) then went into the lodge for some food – spinach mushroom barley soup for me. The big group of us started to climb Three Mile trail (which, no surprise, is three miles long). Probably the most note-worthy part of this outing was a slightly out of control Dave whacking into and wiping out a woman who was stopped in the middle of the trail. Anyway, half way up the trail we realized how late it was so we turned around and skied down.

I must say that my skiing skills started out awful. I simply had no control on downhills and intentionally fell more than once because I couldn’t stop any other way. As I skied more I got more comfortable and I improved through the afternoon. My ancient ski gear, though continued its disintegration. Last year one of my boots broke in two while I was skiing the W&OD trail after one of the Snowmageddon storms. Today, the strap on one of my ski poles broke. I skied without a strap for the rest of the day but in the back of my mind I was working ideas for temporary fixes.

Waiting upstairs at Hellbenders. That's my foot on the right.

I was a late joiner to the trip. By the time I decided to go along most of the group made arrangements to stay at the Purple Fiddle in Thomas, WV – a funky hostel/nightclub. Since the Fiddle was full by the time I joined, I’m staying at the far nicer (but more expensive) Bright Morning Inn in Davis, just a few minutes away. For dinner the group – now swelled to a dozen with Catriona – decided to hit Hellbender Burrito, convenient for me since it was right across from where I was staying. It takes a while to seat 12 at a restaurant in a small WV town. Fortunately for us the restaurant had a little room upstairs to hang out in. This room felt like a college apartment – 1980’s vintage couch, beer sign, video games, junk. It was actually a cozy place to hang out for a while. Finally they called us, though we did have to eat split between two tables. I had a burrito with seitan (a wheat protein product), veggies, cheese and beans – good! I accidentally really doused my burrito with habanero sauce (I didn’t notice the bottle didn’t have a shaker top). That didn’t really slow me down any eating it and I had that wonderful burning sensation in my mouth when I was done.

Everyone had gotten up pretty early, so the combination of big burritos and beer on top of an afternoon of exertion did us in. It was an early night and we all headed back to our respective hotels to turn in.