Skiing Minocqua

Every year for awhile now I have spent New Year's weekend in Minocqua. This year, however, I hadn't made any plans to do so as we had snow in Madison and I've been on the road for almost every weekend for awhile. It seemed like it would be a wise idea to stay home and save some money.

Alas, the snow in Madison started to melt away so a change of plans was called for and Dave and I were once again off to ski at one of my favorite places - Minocqua's Winter Park. That part of the state received a good dumping of snow so the trails were in excellent condition.

This weekend I realized that indeed I'm not the greatest skier. Ironically though on Monday towards the end of my ski day a woman actually complemented me on how effortless I made skate skiing look. That was the most shocking thing I've heard in a long time as I was really struggling at that point and was about to call it a day. It was nice to hear that as I felt like I looked like a crazy person on skis.

Although when I ski at Winter Park I prefer to ski my old favorites like Silver Strider, Sleigh Ride and Nepco's Cruiser and avoid trails with names like Death Drop, Highway to Hell, Descent into Oblivion (okay, none of those are actual trail names). However, I did do some of the hillier routes as I know that I need to get ready for my upcoming ski events also known as ski races.

Now my knee wasn't too happy about the whole weekend skiing extravaganza. Oh sure it has adopted very nicely to hour long ski session followed by half hour long stretching sessions. I've discovered thought that the knee is not so keen on skiing for a few hours with more climbing and descending than normal. I've also discovered that I am afraid of screwing up my knee on downhills especially tricky ones with tight corners. I really need to work on that as I'll be skiing lots of tricky downhills over the course of this winter. I also need to desperately work on falling on my skis to get good forward momentum and make the optimum use of my ab muscles. I really think if I can get that going better that I can really get faster. If only that were easier to do!!! And if we only could get another snow storm here in Madison so I could have more opportunities for practice. I will be doing a nightly snow dance!

The funniest part of the trip to Minocqua was the hotel we stayed at. I've never actually stayed at a hotel in Minocqua before as Dave and I have always gone with friends and rented a cabin. Since we decided to go at the very last minute I didn't have time to call and see if anyone else wanted to go so I just found us a hotel that had a good price. Ironically enough that ended up being the hotel that always causes me to laugh when we drive by - The Waters of Minocqua. It's a hotel with an indoor waterpark. It's actually not that bad as the rooms are spacious, have a microwave and refrigerator and there is a free buffet breakfast included in the price of the room (and also free entrance to the waterpark if you want to go down the big water slide with a zillion kids).

Anyway, the hotel lobby is full of the craziest northwoods kitsch that you could ever hope to see. My favorite is this display of . . . . well, you can decide for yourself what is going on with these animals but suffice it to say that every time I was in the lobby I couldn't believe my eyes.

It is worth it to stay at this place just to see the lobby -- a marvel of taxidermy around every corner. When we arrived on Sunday evening to check in a bridal party was having photos taken in front of the big fireplace in the lobby which had an approximately 8 foot high marvel of artistic triumph featuring taxidermied fish. I'm sure the family appreciated my slack jawed gawking at the proceedings. It was too much for me though!

Okay, next weekend is the 24 Hours of Telemark. I'm really not ready but the plan is that at the end of the event I will have miraculously become a good skier. Or I will have sworn off skiing for the rest of the season. Only time will tell.