The deep (for Fort Wayne, a little north of here it would be just an OK base) snow from two weeks ago has been through several freeze-thaw cycles that left most of the golf course as a near perfect skating lane. Knowing it would probably be the last ski of the season, I went out hard before the snow turned slushy. Since I only recently started skating, I’m still mastering the technique. The period between when I warmed up and when the snow turned to slush was probably my most consistent and fast skiing with good technique on these skis so far. Then the snow started getting too slushy, and I got tired; but because of the predicted hotter weather and rain, I kept going for a while. Eventually, the slush was too much, so I headed back to where I started. I was tired and having a hard time moving through the slush. I even changed from the moderate V2A I had been skating to a sloppy V1, just to keep above a walking speed on the level ground. Then a photographer showed up and took my picture. Today, it was in the paper.

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In related news, I spent last Sunday afternoon with Dad and several Little River Wetlands Project volunteers documenting a new conservation easement. One-hundrend and forty acres of private land along the Little Wabash River floodplain are being restored. We took a bunch of 360° panoramas and GPS points at key locations on the property. These pictures can repeated every few years to track the changes to the land. Unfortunately, the county surveyor’s office is about to denude the bank along that section of the Little River.

My hill-climbing technique on classic skis is much faster than it was at the start of the season. I now have much more glide for less effort. Since I had never skate-skied before this winter, my skating technique has improved even more than my classic technique. Over my first two days of skating, I became much more efficient. My style still needed a lot of work. A week ago I made a major improvement to my skating. I was doing a loop that was taking me twenty minutes at 90% effort. I tried some changes to my style and my time dropped to fifteen minutes and my effort dropped to 85%. I then spent a few hours waxing my skis, and my time and effort dropped even more. I think that I switched from a V1/V2A hybrid to a better almost-V2A technique. My V2 and V2A style really needs work, but I’m a lot closer now.

Last week was spring break, so I had time to iron many coats of wax into my skis. They should be much faster next winter. I finished with a thick storage coat of wax and put my skis away for the winter.

On Thursday, I spent some time on the Country Crown skis at Foster Park. There wasn’t enough snow to go over my tracks more than once. I ended up skiing in a spiral around the golf course. I missed the extra glide of the waxable skis. Foster Park used to be my standard skiing spot. The past couple years I spent most of my skiing time at Fox Island.

Friday, a few guys from the Fort Wayne Kayak (and canoe) Club went skiing at Chain o’ Lakes SP. I have spent lots of time canoeing at Chain o’ Lakes, but had never been there in the winter. The snow map showed twice as much snow there, so I decided to join them. I arrived late, but caught up quickly. The conditions were better than predicted. There were enough sticks poking through the snow that I decided to use my old skis. I skied with the group for a couple hours, then by myself for a couple more hours. It was a great day. The snow was (mostly) good, there were snow covered trees, cirrostratus clouds, and fresh trails to break. Chain o’ Lakes is a great place to ski. There are easy flat trails and some good hills. The winter traffic is much lower than I expected, so the snow was still in great shape. I skied an easy 25 km.

I was going to try the trails at Pokagon SP this morning, but the warm weather and rain started early.