was Future of Skiing

While hiking on the trails, I noticed that the trails were brushed very
nicely, including about 2ft extra on each side to eliminate face slappers. I
also noticed some changes to the trail system, done by some heavy equipment.
I've never seen the trails in this good of shape in the fall......(we're
still waiting for snow). I'm pretty sure that another RSN'er was involved in
getting these trails in good shape. Steve Thatcher of the Ride n Glide ski
club has spearheaded an effort to work with the park, improve the trails,
especially with better grooming. In fact, his club paid for the groomers to
attend the Upper Midwest Grooming Clinic in Houghton, MI at ABR.

How does the future of XC skiing look? I think that it looks great! With
hundreds of high school kids out skiing (2500 or so in MN), people like
Steve Thatcher and Marsh Jones putting their energy back into the sport to
improve it and all of the support from the ski shops, wholesalers and
suppliers, it can only get better.


Thanks for the kind words Greg. To set the record straight. We made a
contribution to the DNR grooming fund and made a suggestion that they
attend the ABR clinic. The bosses at the DNR noticed the interest we
were showing and decided to send their people. We did the same with
the Washington Co. Parks department. We offered to send one person
and the parks thought it was such a good idea that they sent two.
It's these little showings of interest that are getting results for
us. Instead of just whinning about the conditions we're offering if
we can help. I use the extra funds from the Ride and Glide Club and
try to plow them back into the ski community. That's were a club like
mine, which is made up a lots of Masters (read people who have jobs
and money), comes in handy. I figure if I can get the parents
interested in sport their kids are into then maybe they'll contribute
to the cause or at least remain excited about it. In the future we
hope to help with fund raising for lights at ski areas in the east
Metro (Lake Elmo, Browns Creek) and will be sending a big contingent
to volunteer at the Masters and 40+ to ski and volunteer at the City
of Lakes, which is our Club Championship. This year we have 115
people in the club and the demand gets bigger every year. I have to
turn people away in order to keep the student to instructor ratio
below 10 to 1