Any other takers in the Last Day to Ski in Dane County Contest? Don Farriss on Tuesday April 3 in Blue Mounds seems to be a winner to far? Rats! Do I come in second place? Monday April 2, ice skating on the top of Lake Mendota..... Would I recommend it? No. Was it fun? Yes. My neighbor left his ice boat on the lake one week too long. One runner was already submerging. We took a long extension ladder out and precariously strung it out across the small river that had already formed between the shoreline and the melting ice on Lake Mendota. Once across the ladder, however, the ice seemed fine. We dug a hole and proclaimed Lake Mendota ice still 12 inches thick. * So my neighbor futzed with his ice boat and I skied around carefully, trying to ski on the "white" ice and not on the "black ice". I wore a life preserver! Getting the ice boat into pieces and carrying all the pieces over the ladder took us several hours. (I had images of Sherpas on the ice bridges of Everest). The "ice" got slushier and slushier with each pass, but the ice boat is now put away, and my life preserver, and we should probably be put away too..... >>> Kay Lum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 4/4/01 11:04:22 AM >>> congrats! I had a friend that skiied there a week ago, on the ice, and fell and broke his taillbone, so BEWARE! Biking is safer now! (I think!) K From: "Don Fariss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 10:44:22 -0500 To: "Bob Hamel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Bob Rabin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Dale Fanney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Galen Kenoyer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Hope Stege" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Roger & Dee Nicolai" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Tina Cronkite" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Willi VanHaren@PureSweet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Tom & Dan Rebholz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Ben Cline" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Amanda Durkin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Greg Jones" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Kristin Lynne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Louise Jones" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Joe King-xc-discussion group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [XC] Blue Mound ski XC Die-hards, Am writing to inform & brag, not to entice. Karl Heil may be the only man in Wisconsin with his own glacier albeit long & skinny. And I may have been the last person to ski on it at Blue Mound this season. I skied yesterday in 35 degree temps. Had to hop from patch to patch portaging over mud & gravel to the bottom of the hill below the parking lot at the pool, but from then on both John Minx and Willow Springs trails in the woods were 98% covered. Covered mostly with a clear looking material (ice) that was rotten enough on top to be rough and warm enough to be soft enough to get purchase with no-wax skis. About 25% of the time there was actual white, skiable snow along the edges. A very strange experience to ski on this thin ribbon with only patches of white on a mass of brown all around. Would I recommend it? No. Was it fun? Yes, to be able to say I skied in April in southern Wisconsin on natural snow (well, ice). Am I certifiably crazy? Nearly. All hail to Heil the guru of the groomer, Don Fariss
