Can you see my excitement? I was waiting in my truck to meet a friend to carpool with... and noticed my skis were visible behind me... MY skis! I own xc skis!!! Yahoo!!
Address/Location: Bethel Inn & Resort, 21 Broad St. Bethel Maine
Cost: $27 for this trifecta! Plus $18 for ski rentals (for $45) (Trail pass is $18 and ski rentals are $18, so... that's $36... you may as well pay the extra $9 for an opportunity to swim in a heated outdoor pool in winter!)
*Trifecta not available on Saturdays & holidays!
Next year I may look into staying here for a night so that I could get in two days of skiing!
Parking: The parking area is beyond the Inn's Main entrance. (It was the next right turn for me, coming from Gray/Poland/Oxford area)
*To get to the ski shop, you do not have to go into the main part of the inn... you can follow the path off the parking lot that heads towards the tavern... the ski shop will be just before the tavern!
FMI:
Visit this webpage for more info and scroll towards the bottom for the SSS mention!
Trail Map can be found here.
Gladys Friendly: Nope
Notes: We had a group of 13 or 14 of us participate in this adventure... once again organized by Shannon from Fitmaine! We decided to hit the trails first, then get lunch at the tavern, and end with the pool/sauna.
One note that I find important.. is the locker room in the health center is small, one bathroom stall and one shower...with several lockers. For the modest among us... that makes changing a challenge when there are a lot of people. We made it work... but just as a heads up!
I was grateful that Shannon had chosen the easier trails for those of us who were beginners.... Those trails included: Mill Brook and Moose .... but I think we somehow ended up on part of 'Dick's Best Guess'...
What I really liked about this trail/route was that it really started out with some flat terrain (and the trails are groomed so that helps!) and then there are some gradual inclines and declines... with a lot of encouragement and some coaching, by the end of our adventure, I was excited by the hills!
Smiling! I was having fun!!
I took one hard fall... and my shoulder is still sore to show for it... quite sore... the kind of sore that may result in having to go to the doc to go to physical therapy so I can get on the water in my kayak as soon as I want to! But I digress... The fall I took... while going on the easy going Mill Brook trail... there was a place where there was a pretty big hill that we could choose to go down... Shannon and Wendy wanted to do the hill for practice and invited others to do so too... with my saying yes to adventure spirit I said yes!! I should have said no... I got my skis in the tracks and started down... picking up way to much speed... I flailed...and freaked out... and bailed... and it wasn't a pretty bail... I flopped and as I fell my right arm got pulled behind me...hence the shoulder pain... But... I learned that going down hills IN the groomed tracks... for me... is not a good idea... I had no way to try to slow down... I couldn't adjust my skis to slow down... outside of the tracks I can snowplow a bit... and that slows me down... So... I have learned I do not like to do hills in the tracks!
This was me just a bit after the fall... I recovered!!!
After gaining some confidence on my new skis (which I LOVE by the way!!) We did get into the woods and there were a few hills... not super steep and not super long... hilly enough that I felt like I needed to wait for people to move out of the way before I went down to prevent a bowling situation! A few people took some falls... so the hills were hilly enough to throw some people off... but... I feel like having had the lesson through LLBean's Outdoor discovery school earlier this winter... was SUPER helpful... (Plus my ski gear is the same stuff I had used there! So happy with my decision!) I would highly recommend taking the xc ski class through LLBean if you are new to xc skiing... AND make note of the equipment you use in case you decide to buy a pair! (If you like them you may want to get the same stuff... if you hate them, you would want to look for something different!)
I loved being in the woods, on skis, with friends! Especially as I get more comfortable with my skis! I do think eventually I will have the confidence to go solo, especially at a place like this where there are enough other people around that someone would see me at some point if I needed help!
There were, of course, some shenanigans along the way!
Shannon and Wendy JUMPED on their skis!
Shannon stuck the landing... Wendy... recovered nicely from the fall!
And Shannon jumped again!
This was me celebrating coming down one of the hills! (Adventure arms.... is the pose by the way... Shannon coined the term after my photo last winter while snowshoeing on Mackworth!)
This is was something about the day I really liked... when we for to a hill... we would slow down... wait at the top as someone went down... and once at the bottom would cheer for those coming down the hill... I love the support in this kind of outing!
This was one of the longer hills towards the end of the trip...
Our fearless leader!
The weather was beautiful... although on the open parts, the golf course, the wind was biting!! But the majority of our time was spent in wooded areas.
After returning to the ski shop... we went to lunch at the tavern. We had a few tables between all of us and had great conversation with good food! This lady... is "Jackknife!" I am proud to say that I gave her that nickname at our trapeze yoga class several weeks ago. She was hanging upside down and contorted herself into a yoga move... and the instructor said that she was doing the jackknife! She is a woman I am glad I am getting to know... I think she is fierce! She wanted a pic with me because she is fairly tall and likes to have to look up to me... I don't always agree to photos that highlight my height when the focus is my height... but... Jackknife and I look up to each other... and I think it is a great photo... plus... my shirt!!!
After Lunch we headed to the heated outdoor pool and sauna... I admit the pool was warm, but not hot... but if you raised yourself above the water then submerged again, it felt much warmer. We had some races and did some handstands... (apparently after i left there was also some syncrinized swimming!)
This was a first for me... being outside, in a pool, with snow on the ground!
To be honest... I wish there had been an outdoor hot tub!!! But still a great experience!
This trip was even more special because two of my college friends came along!
(We did not intentionally line up by height!) These two... mean a lot to me. I had mentioned this adventure to them... and to be honest thought they would both say thanks, but no thanks... they both have daughters... one has a husband and the other has a fiance... they do not often take the opportunity to do something just for themselves... but they did on Sunday! They said Yes!!! While out skiing one of them said she needs to do this more... do things where she can just be her, not a mom, not a partner... just her... YES!!!
For me, that is part of the beauty of these excursions... we get to do something that is good for us ...good for our bods as Shannon would say... good for our minds... and when you are outside moving it is hard to do much else besides being in the moment... and maybe taking some photos...
I have to pause for a second... and say that I am super proud of myself... for all I did this winter... to embrace it.. to stay active, to push myself and to expand my comfort zone... even during this one adventure... I found myself starting slowly... then as I got more comfortable and confident I pushed myself... and perhaps more importantly TRUSTED myself...and my skills... we need to trust ourselves more...
I find myself in the moment... I find myself enjoying the moment... not thinking about all of the other things I have going on... I am socializing and making new connections all the time... I am finding that the people I am meeting and getting to know are incredible! Every one of us has battles we are fighting... challenges we are facing... we have unique skillsets, varied knowledge, a wealth of life experiences.... we are pretty incredible!!!
But the thing is.... that while this feels like a unique experience... if we take time to do things together, to do things that are fun, a little adventurous (or a lot adventurous), and talk... encourage each other... as we all need to do... we get to learn about each other, learn from each other... and appreciate each other and feel appreciated by each other! I love it! The club activities so far have been mostly women...and while I hope that some men join the club and participate in the activities... I am so glad that in this group, the women who come... build each other up... that is what we need to teach younger women/girls.... sisterhood if you will!
Today I had a colonoscopy... (a routine screening - make sure you are doing all your screenings! ) .. Something I found humorous at my appointment was one of the questions... I was asked was if I had taken any falls in the last 3 to 6 months... I laughed out loud... I said.. yes several! The nurse looked at me funny... I said... Let's see.... I fell xc Skiing Sunday...really hard... I also fell snowshoeing probably 8 times over the winter.. and took some other falls on another xc ski she journey... She was like .....How much outdoor stuff do you do?? She asked that in a way where I could tell she was a bit impressed! HA! I loved it!
She then said.. so those falls were not just random losing your balance due to some other health thing... I said.. no.. it was from overestimating my abilities or being a clutz! LOL
How different this winter was for me! I am really excited that spring arrives tomorrow.... as kayaking is on the horizon... but... I am also investigating if I can chase winter to do more skiing if I head north over April break!
Cheers to winter! Cheers to Adventure! Cheers to empowering ourselves and each other!
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