Neither shot nor runover while skiing, thankfully
Early December snow kick-started cross-country skiing in Wisconsin but came before deer hunting season had closed in many state and county parks. Via the Silent Sports messageboard, I tried to spread that word that guns and skis may not mix at Nine Mile Forest and Blue Mound State Park, among other places. Yet it didn’t occur to me that by skiing around the closed gate and through the parking lot of Portage County’s Standing Rocks Park I risked running into hunters. No such encounter took place, thankfully, but I was rightly scolded after I posted my Standing Rocks trail condition report on Skinnyski.com.
Last week, while skiing at Greenbush in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest, my skiing partner and I did cross paths with another category of trail users that made us more than a little nervous: snowmobilers. Well before our trail crossed theirs, we heard that annoying “RRRREEEEEEEEE” grow louder and louder. Twice we found ourselves bottoming out on hills just as two helmeted sled riders passed in front of us.
On neither occasion did the snowmobiler in the lead show any sign of seeing us. In fact, the first time, sledhead No. 1 slowed in the middle of the intersection before jumping off to get a closer look at a posted trail map. Luckily, sledhead No. 2 saw my brother-in-law Adam snowplowing down the hill, and allowed him and then myself to pass between their vehicles. Not until Adam had begun climbing the hill on the opposite side did sledhead No. 1 notice us.
I was in front of Adam the second time we met snowmobilers. (I don’t know whether they were the same guys; they all look the same to me.) Again, sledhead No. 2 saw me as he passed in front of me, from right to left. He waved his left hand as if to make other members of his clan aware of my presence. But since he was bringing up the rear, only I saw the gesture.
The lead snowmobiler was just as oblivious as the earlier one had been. And I reckon the guy on the second sled gave no further thought to us as soon as we were out of sight. We skiers, however, were left to listen to them well after their disappearance and fear that we’d run into them again.
For years now, the Northern Kettle Moraine Nordic Ski Club has wanted to move the snowmobile trail to the east of Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. In fact, that was one of the group’s seven listed goals in its 10-year master plan adopted in 1998.
Obviously, due to our experience, I hope the club can get the snowmobile trail moved to the periphery of the ski area. As much as I enjoy the 25K of ski trails at Greenbush, Standing Rocks and other ski trail systems are all the more attractive because they are not intersected by snowmobile trails. If I can just remember to stay away from these public trails open during the hunting seasons, I’ll get to enjoy their quiet beauty without worrying about being shot or runover.
– Joel Patenaude