Nordic Skiing

Cross country skiing is the traditional activity for cyclists in northern latitudes to do during winter when it is too cold and snowy outside to ride. I learned to ski about 6 years ago while living in Idaho. I missed a few years while living in Virginia, but now living in Wisconsin, it is a natural activity to do during the long and snowy Wisconsin winters.

Why do I like to ski. There are lots of reasons:

• It is a terrific aerobic workout. A lot of cycling is about aerobic endurance, and cross country skiing will help you build or maintain aerobic capacity.
• It is a terrific full body workout. After skiing for two hours, your whole body feels like it got a workout: your legs, back, abdominals and shoulders. Basically to balance yourself on skis, a lot of muscles have to work together in unison, and these are a lot of muscles that don't normally get worked.
• It is much more interesting than other alternatives in the winter. Going to the gym, about 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer is all I can handle. Boring! But I have no problem skiing for 2 hours
• It is an opportunity to get outdoors in winter. And, we have some great parks and natural areas that you get to ski through. Being able to get out on the ski trails in the middle of a forest away from it all is a big draw for me.
• It is relatively inexpensive to get into. Skis, bindings, boots and poles will run you about $300. The clothes you wear cross country skiing are the same as you wear in cold weather cycling (you burn enough energy that you stay warm). So really the other things you need are just gloves and a hat. Plus, most trail passes are very inexpensive, $5 or less.

In Appleton, we are fortunate to have two places to ski just essentially in town. The first of these is Gordon Bubolz Nature Preserve. It is only about 5 minutes north of Appleton on County Road A. Trail passes are $5 for non-members or free for members. The area is essentially a forested wetlands. The ski trails are almost completely flat, so it is a good place for those new to cross country skiing or for those first couple times in the season when you are trying to remember how to ski. You tend to see a lot of families at Bubolz. The trails are cut right next to the trees, so all of the trails have a very natural feel. Finally, Bubolz does rent skis and have a warming shelter at the parking area.

The other place to ski is Plamann Park. This is a county park, so there is no cost to use the trails. There are not rentals or any type of warming shelters however. They do a good job of maximizing the 250 acres of the park with a trail system that loops you around the perimeter of the park. One thing that is immediatly apparent about Plamann is that the course is hilly. Not hilly in an Idaho sense of long climbs, but you are constantly going up and down short, steep hills. Doing a "lap" of Plamann takes me close to an hour and includes no less than 8 different hills to go up and down. Some of the areas in Plamann do feel very natural, but some are skiing through the baseball fields and the park boundary next to a subdivision. However, I do think they do a good job of making you feel like you are in a natural setting and you never really seem to notice there is a house just beyond the row of trees. Overall, Plamann is an excellent workout. If you do 2 laps at Plamann, you have a terrific cardio workout.

The one other place to ski in Appleton is Reid golf course, but I have never been there. I have been to the Brown County Reforestation Camp, but I'll write about that in another post.