Promoting quiet recreation in Wisconsin.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Escanaba-Pallette

Those of you who ski Escanaba-Pallette know it is the queen of Vilas County trails. I skied the trail on Sunday, using my waxless skis instead of my favored old-school wooden skis for a highly technical reason-I brought the wrong skis with me. At first, I was sticking a bit but the wind came up, and the tempurature dropped a bit, and my waxless skis worked like a dream.

Remember those old brio train sets, with the wooden tracks? That was what the tracked trail reminded me of after skiing most of the winter on non-groomed trails. I had forgotten how fun it is to really kick out and glide once in a while, though my kicking and gliding might really be described as "flailing" to people who really know how to do it. Someday I am going to take lessons. Or maybe not.

Escanaba-Pallete offers many vistas and turns. The forest is mostly mature hardwoods at the beginning, but the trail rolls down into spruce forests and along the lakes, some big pines. This is a wonderful area. I heard some snowmobiles in the distance from time to time, but it was generally quiet. (I wonder if silent sports folks will develop the equivalent of the "wind-chill factor"- "We predict moderate noise in the northwoods this weekend".)

Have you ever noticed how much noise you create in your own head when you are in the woods? Sometimes, I find myself thinking about the future, thinking about the past, debating some abstract idea, solving the world's problems. Then, I notice myself doing this, and for a moment, I stop and just pay attention to what is around me.

I found this happening over and over again on my trip. Fortunately, the beauty of the trail always pulled me back to the present.

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