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Running Group
Group Name:
XC Skiers
Manager:
Mr. Bill
Event Day:
Saturday
Event Date:
March 13th, 2010
Event Time:
Member:
Mr. Bill
Great Bear Chase - Weekend in Houghton Michigan
Bill and Peter
(Zen Master of Skiing)
leave Chicago heading way north & slightly west and somehow wind up in the Eastern Time zone of Keweenaw Peninsula of the U.P. for the 30th Annual Great Bear Chase.
Early spring rain & fog & warm temperatures had race organizers scrambling to reroute the course over trails that still had snow... distances were shortened from 50km to 44km -and- 26km to 22km (unofficially my GPS tracked 12.78 miles for the 22km -or- about 20.6 kilometers). "Bravo" to the course groomers who were able set up small amounts of snow for hundreds of skiers. We were looking forward to starting and finishing on the streets of downtown Calumet, but lack-of-snow conditions scrapped that tradition too.
So we plowed through the sticky, cream-of-wheat, warm snow while race-time forest temperatures hovered in the mid 40°s F. Two steep & narrow chutes made for an early challenge where skiers lined up like penguins on ice flows, taking turns jumping into the abyss... many tumbled into the soft snow... me included. A strange bear was spotted multiple times along the course... two paws on skate style skis.
We had so much fun that we hung around until Monday morning... getting in a couple more days of skiing before making that long drive back to Chicago. Ahh, the Great Bear Chase... last hurrah of the xc ski season
!
The Great Bear Chase of Calumet, Michigan
("
Always two weeks after the Birkie
")
:
bearchase.org/
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Message Posted:
March 17th, 2010 8:45 am
Last Update:
March 17th, 2010 9:52 am
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Group Created:
February 11th, 2010 11:39 am
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