Cross Country Ski Headquarters

Yesterday Grace and I took a "micro vacation" up to Cross Country Ski Headquarters near Roscommon, Michigan.  They have over ten miles of cross country ski trails that they keep perfectly groomed, and get regular doses of snow throughout the winter.  Yesterday there was about 10" on the ground, which was plenty to groom into some nice skiing.

We got a leisurely start in the morning and did not get out of the house much before 11am, and along with a lunch break on the way up did not hit the trail until 2:20.  As reported on XCHQ's website, the conditions were great!  Well-groomed trails, the temperature was warm, but not too warm to start melting the snow, and not much wind.  The sky was cloudy, but we are in Michigan during the winter...sunny skies might just be asking too much.

Here's Grace getting warmed up about ten minutes into the trail.  She quickly found that she might have layered up a little too much.  But better to be too warm than too cold!

Here I am, cresting one of the hills in the back loop.  The hills are pretty mild there and neither one of us fell all day.  But that is not to say the trails are boring; they have done a nice job of working with what was available and all the trails have a nice flow.  And of course there are no sticks, logs, branches rocks, roots, or other obstacles waiting to poke you or your skis.

Proof that Bigfoot exists?  And on skis, no less.

Some of the trail is on state land, and other parts are on private land.  At least part of the private land must be owned by logging companies as there are areas where most of the trees are cut down.  In this era of kinder, gentler logging, one of the techniques must be to leave some mature trees to help repopulate the logged area.  There were a few large pines and a few oaks left standing in the cut areas.
This tree did not know which way to grow!  I was right on the edge of the trail towards the end.  Not much else to say about it, other than it was eye-catching.

After we got through the main trails, we played around by the store and day lodge until dark.  They have a couple little practice hills to work on stopping, turning, and climbing; and there are a couple short trails to demo skis or just turn a few hot laps.  I am not sure, but I think they even have snow-making equipment on these trails.

All in all, quite a deal for $6 per person.  We looked around in the store after the sun went down, bought a few items, and hit the road to head home.