Sunny with a Chance of Skiing.

Seems that when the sun comes out (and it's not a curling day) so do the x-country skis. Yes, it's a tad chilly at -18, and yes, we had the trails to ourselves - at least the two we did. Amazing how you scoot right along to keep warm.

Since conditions on the lake are not conducive, we went to the Georgian Nordic Ski Club. We have been going occasionally for years, but this year we decided to join, so that we could go when we felt like it - and for as short or long as we wanted.

As cottagers, you wouldn't even know that this place existed for skiing. Apparently, they are a canoe club as well, but we haven't looked into that aspect yet.

I brought along my BlackBerry to take a few snaps - they aren't great quality, but it sure was easy.

The Club has a variety of groomed trails in the woods - long and short - with and without hills, to suit skiers of all levels. They offer Classic x-country as well as Skating, which is beautiful to watch but beyond our scope or desire.

The groomer actually creates tracks for the Classic skiing and the area to the left is for the Skating.

The scenery in the woods is spectacular and the Classic trails are even narrower, so you really feel the presence of the magnificent trees. 

Occasionally you come into an open area like this one - and today, the wind was there to greet us, dropping the temp even further.

This is the trail map and you can see that trails are labelled and range from 1.4 km to 16. There are also a couple of show shoeing trails as well.

See what you are missing in the winter time? It's the cold version of kayaking and paddle boating all rolled into one.  An excellent workout, regardless of how short the excursion.