Copied from the devilslakewisconsin.com blog – As a sea kayaking coach I’ve gained some insight over the years on starting new sports. In the beginning you have no idea what you’re doing, what equipment to use, what clothing will work or even where to go. You are basically on your own, not knowing if anything you’re doing is right or if you are starting off sowing the seeds of bad habits. Cross country skiing is no different. Like all things, lessons wouldn’t be a bad idea. If you can find them.

As an avid kayaker I’m always thinking about the water when I look to get out doors. I hike, trail run, and bike too but water is my thing. In Wisconsin however it’s not all that easy to get a sea kayak out in the winter. You can, and I do. As long as there is open water and a will, there is paddling to be done. Winter paddling is certainly warmer than riding on the back of a snowmobile and much more fun than shoveling your driveway! Still, by the time mid-January rolls around it’s getting pretty hard to find that open water. Paddlers can start getting flabby.

Now I’ve talked to my northern friends about finding an alternate outdoor activity for some time and to a person they’ll recommend cross-country skiing. It’s just what active outdoor types do in winter. Cross country skiing is in all the magazines and in the winter Olympics after all. Yeah, I know that. But it’s never really appealed to me. I love downhill skiing but it’s so darn expensive. In the end I decided I should give cross country a go.

Whenever you start a new sport it’s best to rent gear. As I said at the top, you simply don’t know what you’re getting into. You may hate it. You may find you like one style over another. You may simply not have the money to drop on $700 worth of gear right off. Really, the only people who should buy gear right away are people with money to waste.. because they will have to buy more once they actually know what they are doing! A salesperson may know gear, but they don’t know YOU. Save yourself the hassle and rent until you know what kind of skier you want to be.

We went down to the local bike and ski shop here in town where they rent skis & boots for $15 for the day. We filled out our ” Your death is not our fault” forms and were soon holding onto boots and big red skis with the number 189 on them. After a quick explanation of how our boots attached to the bindings, and unlike downhill skies didn’t detach when you fall, we were off. Oh, I did ask how you slow down when you’re in those little tracks but I didn’t really get a clear answer.. Oh well.

I may not know one thing about cross country sking but one thing I do know is the local parks! As I’ve said I spend many, many… many hours on the trails each year. Normally hiking and biking. While Devil’s Lake & Mirror Lake State Parks both have miles of cross country trails, most people I’ve spoken to recommend Mirror Lake. I had to agree.

Devil’s lake has about 5 miles of groomed trails. The Steinke Basin loop is fairly short and fairly flat while the Johnson Moraine & connectors will be challenge to get up, and a challenge to get down and probably not where we want to be on our first go.

Mirror Lake State Park has about 17 miles of trails and something for every skills and is where we decided to give cross country skiing our first try. The park was fairly busy for a winter day and that was obviously due to the popularity of XC at the park. We went inside to chat with the ranger for a few moments. He suggested that we head on over to the Fern Dell loop. The Fern Dell is a 3 mile loop of mainly forested and mostly flat trail. It had just been recently groomed which made for an easy first go of it. By the time we hit the trail I had already fallen down once and was feeling the cold through my rented ski boots. There have to be warmer ones out there.

As I said, the Fern Dell is quite flat and we were able to watch more skilled skiers as they passed us by to get some sense of the body motions. Some skiers stayed in a path that looked similar to a small gauge railway track along the side of the wide trail. We found out later that this what our rental gear was for. In the deep tracks you could basically motor along without fear of losing control. You simply went where the tracks took you. Other skiers passed us by on the wider open section basically skating past. I’m told this is aptly named skate skiing. I have a feeling that if I stuck with the sport I would choose skate skiing over “riding the rails”.

With a few silly falls and bit of work to get up the hills it took us about an hour and a half to cover the 3 miles. We were told by one pleasant skier that it was a “45 minute trail”.. Oh well. For our hour and a half we were treated to amazing, cold, fresh air and some beautiful scenery. It was an amazing site to watch snow fall like silver glitter from the tops of the pine trees with the lightest gust of wind. Beautiful!

At this point I can’t say for sure whether XC skiing will become a passion or not. It was fun. I enjoy any excuse to get outdoors. I really want to try skate skiing and you can’t rent the right gear locally. We’ll see. One thing is sure, if you are into cross country we’ve got a lot to offer here in the Baraboo hills region. As for me, I think snowshoeing is up next!

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