Skiing and sledding at Riverside Golf Course

Our 4-H Ski Club met up at <a href=http://raisingmaine.mainetoday.com/blogentry.html?id=475>Riverside's groomed trail system</a> this past weekend. The kids enjoy the un-groomed trail experience of Mountain Division Trail (our club's home base) but like to have some skate skiing options during our season as well (skate skiing requires a wider, smoother surface than classic - L. explains the difference in these techniques in her <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1zcFIJyi50" target=new>ski video</a>).

It's a little tricky when we take Ski Club on the road though because I'm not always sure we'll have the right kind of space to do our warm-up games. But Riverside is one of those places that has an open area out of the way of other skiers to do our thing (and it's affordable with a requested donation of $2 to ski on their trails).

Fino caught some pictures of our amoeba tag games (I don't tend to get pictures of this because I'm too busy playing the game with the kids).

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It's not so easy to turn in such a small area quickly on skis. This is why even though most of the kids have skied for several years, we play this game using only ONE ski. It's still very entertaining and the kids aren't even thinking about the fact that they're developing better balance and glide while playing the game.

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And because my family is familiar with this trail system, we know where to find the "fun" hills. It's not so easy to climb them, but it's a whole lot of fun to ski down.

<img src="http://seen.mainetoday.com/gallery_photos/2009/02/04/313/4009_xcski_blog6_580.jpg" class=""><span class=caption>One of L.'s "tricks" is to ski sitting down. This may look easy but making sure you have control over the skis to direct them down a curving hill does require a bit of skill (something L. has been working on over the years).</span>

And then of course there is the hula hoop portion of our afternoon ...

<img src="http://seen.mainetoday.com/gallery_photos/2009/02/04/313/4008_xcski_blog5_580.jpg" class=""><span class=caption>My friend <a href=http://www.mainetoday.com/blogs/shannon/ target=new>Shannon</a> joined Ski Club for the day and gave the hoop a whirl. She had plenty of cheerleaders and entered in to the growing number of our club's successful hoop skiers.</span>

... as well as the always important snack time (we usually have some cookies, brownies and/or caramels for an energy boost for the kids).

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Aside from the skate skiing, the other appeal of Riverside for our group is the sledding. After skiing for two hours nearly every kid in our group dumped their ski gear in their respective cars and pulled out their sleds.

No one was too tired to try out the hills on a sled.

And the parents, we had our fun sledding too (and thanks to G., we have some video of that).

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I also have to offer this side note about sledding. Several moms and I chatted about the fact that we found sledding down the hills scarier than skiing down them. Each of us hesitated a bit before pushing off on our sleds initially. I hadn't really put in to words at first why I was so hesitant about sledding but we all came to the conclusion it was about control. You have more speed control options on skis than you do on a sled.

Food for thought....