Battle Creek

The trails at Battle Creek are still in fine shape. The skate lane is pretty well skated in, but rather soft with the warmer temperatures, and the classic track has been reset and looks very good. The back hills were pretty light with the clouds, although they are getting a little icy on the corners; I bit it trying to go to the outside of the last one when I skied—blindly—through some of the snow plowed up on the outside, but the landing was soft. It's great skiing and will hopefully hold up for some time to come.

As I was skiing up the prairie hill I saw someone skating up the steep downhill along the trees. I'm usually not one to question the practices of others, but it was pretty fast and that hill is rather blind, so this could be construed as dangerous. I caught up with him at the top of the hill and started to give him a lecture when he turned to me and said "you know me." "Oh, hi Steve!" He'd apparently never skied Battle Creek before so I gave him a pass, and we shot down the hill, threading through a group of skiers congregated on the level section of the middle of the hill—which was also fast.