Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019

Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019
On the Archduke's Path in Mallorca

Monday, 9 February 2015

Sunday 8 February 2015 – The Whiteface Resort

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For our final day of this holiday within a holiday, we headed to the Whiteface Resort in Lake Placid, which had been recced by Helen yesterday.

It comprises a series of short sections of well groomed undulating trails, on which a one-way system operates. A mix of picturesque woodland and open country makes for a most pleasant experience, albeit there are only 6-7 km of trails. We enjoyed two circuits of about 5 km each, punctuated by a long coffee break and followed by lunch in the comfortable lodge. Then we said our farewells to Susan and Roy, who had a long drive back to Glastonbury, and we set off ourselves into the snow that had been falling since we left Ottawa on Friday. For much of the journey home this snow mutated into freezing rain, despite the temperature of minus 16C.

A longer skiing route, the Jackrabbit Trail, passes through all three of this weekend’s Cross Country skiing venues.

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Roy is shown below on today’s trail. We had nearly a foot of snow overnight and Roy had tried to ski through this fresh snow instead of the groomed trail. He chose a steep hill on which to experiment, and after the resultant somersaults he was still smiling. We hope the imminent operation on his broken wrist (broken in a cycling accident last year) is more successful than the original surgery.

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We also hope that Sue recovers quickly from the stomach upset that competed with the freezing rain to blight our journey home.

Meanwhile, Ken managed all five stages (80 km) of the Canadian Ski Marathon on Saturday, spending the night at the ‘Gold Camp’. But in today’s tough conditions he decided to call it a day after just two sections, eventually arriving back home at 8.30 pm, with split boots (due to ‘the cold’) and split thumbs (due to ‘the cold’). He’s coming to the UK in April. We’ve found something a bit easier for him to tackle!

4 comments:

AlanR said...

Sound wonderful. A long coffee break followed by lunch. Thats my type of skiing holiday.

Phreerunner said...

Exactly. Especially when lunch - crab cake burgers with freshly cooked 'chips' (crisps) and all the trimmings - was cooked by 'the best chef in the USA'.

It's a shame for Sue that she later threw hers as far as she could over a petrol station forecourt.

AlanR said...

Hope Sue is feeling better. Seafood, can be dodgy.

Phreerunner said...

She's much better today, thanks, Alan. Better a dodgy tummy than pneumonia, which was today's diagnosis for Helen's persistent cough. She still has her appetite and sense of humour though and assures me that her condition could be less dangerous than the chicken pie I am currently working on in the laboratory that some know as Helen's kitchen. (I may have been in trouble there if I'd made the obvious typo!)