Day 14: Mont-Sainte-Anne

Again, I know I am wicked behind. I lose. It's been a crazy week+ but, while I haven't been blogging, I have still been doing 1 new thing a day. I hope to catch up with everything in the next few days so have patience!

Pretty much everything I did day 14 was a first! But, in the interest of keeping this short and sweet, I am focusing on XC Skiing at Mont Sainte-Anne.

Mont Saint-Anne is a ginormous mountain/ski resort just north of Quebec City that opened for skiing in 1966. It offers 66 trails and night skiing with the highest elevation in Canada. The resort also offeres roughly 150 km of cross-country ski trails, snowshoeing, dog sledding, and an indoor/outdoor spa!

Bobby and I did just under 9 miles worth of xc trails over the course of about 2.5 hours and we only had 1 wipeout! And yes, it was me. And yes, it was while I was going up hill. Lets be honest though, not a single one of you are surprised right?

If you need to take a break, there are cabins that you can stop at every 2-3 miles that are heated and have benches that you can pull out into beds (bring your own sleeping bag!). We stopped at one and, while there was not much going on inside it, it was wonderful to be able to sit down and thaw out next to the heater.

It is the off season up here (for some reason, tourists don't really seem to be attracted to 15 degree weather during their vacations) and it was during a weekday, but, that being said, there was a surprising lack of people. Which was awesome!! We had miles and miles of trails all to ourselves and, for anyone not familiar with the sport, you really work up quite a sweat so a 15 degree temp. is actually pretty preferable.

The trails were well groomed and wide and the views were spectacular. Totally considering going again tomorrow but I suspect we go to somewhere in town because, yes, you can totally xc ski IN the city of quebec. Thus making this city the Best. City. Ever.

Until Tomorrow,
Cat!

Day 8: Weston Ski Track

I have been a XC (cross-country) skier for my whole life. It is a very easy "sport" and I love it particularly because you don't need to pay $100's each season for lift tickets or drive hours to find the best mountains. All you need are some trails and a lot of snow. 

Because the snow season in Boston has officially started, I've been feeling the XC itch somethin' fierce. So, today I went to Weston Ski Track in Weston, MA with this guy:

The facility, which is a golf course by summer, is only about 30 minutes west of Boston, very easy to get to along main roads, and, on a good day, they have 15km of trails available. Day passes cost only $15 per person. 

It was the first (yay!) ski of the season for both of us and, overall, it went pretty well! The first time is always a little rough because you have to go through the uncomfortable and awkward rebalance phase but the trails here were really flat, simple, and easy to navigate. There was only one wipe out (shockingly not by yours truly) and the trails were very wide which made it easy to pass and be passed by other skiers.

Things to note:

1. Very popular place for local high school teams to practice at. This can be intimidating for beginners as you will have packs of kids flying past you speed training
2. There are lessons for both traditional XC and for skating (shorter skis, faster pace, totally different style)
3. Skiers share trails with snowshoers which is pretty unusual for a xc ski facility. Normally, skiers and snowshoers have different spaces and are not really allowed to share.
4. All 15km of trails are groomed!
5. They make fake snow- so if you are itching to go skiing but most places are closed due to lack of powder, go here. There will only be about 2km worth of trails open but it's way better than nothing!
6. For more information go here

Some pictures of the area:

Overall: While there are better (and free) places to go up north, this is a good little location. Close to Boston, friendly staff, easy to navigate, not many steep areas, and, as previously stated, for only $15 you get a day pass for 15km worth of groomed trails. Also, parking is free! 

For those of you unfamiliar with XC Skiing, I will leave you with an excellent example of how a pro does it:

Until Tomorrow,
Cat!