I’ve been sneaking my skis into the earlier hours of the morning this week.  I’m a bit of a morning person.   Mornings are quite.  Personal.  I like my mornings that way.

And so I head out to the trails early.  And they are quite.  And I like my trails that way.

Atleast they start that way.  I spent a good part of yesterday’s ski dodging Minnesota high school skiers who apparently have never skied on a two-way trail ever… And although traffic flow was a foreign concept to them it was really cool to see so many kids out enjoying some wobbly kilometers on snow.

Every day when I arrive at the trail head parking lot its empty.  (Apparently 10am is the normal ski time these days)  However, this morning was different!   I arrived at OO to find an assortment of skibarus and wagons.   I had happened upon the annual ‘Double Birkie’.  Yes that’s right, Double.  And it’s exactly that, go out, grin and ski the whole Birkie trail twice.   It’s not exactly an official event but it happens every year no matter how good or how bad the snow may be.  This year it was truly a core group of diehard master skiers from around the area.  I skied up ready to explore the southern Birkie trails and found myself in great company.  We skied south until we ran out of snow and then headed back north towards Telemark.  I didn’t stick around for the whole thing but having their company for 3 hours was great.

So even though I didn’t have the trails to myself this morning I didn’t mind the company.  Let’s just say I practiced a little pack skiing this morning, avoided any wipe outs, and met some really wonderful people.

Thanks Guys!