Making Tracks

Tracks don't fall from the sky. Sometimes you have to pitch in and help make them yourself. That's what we did yesterday, when both the UAA alpine and nordic skiers spent a couple hours in the evening, cutting brush at Kincaid Park.  

Former NCAA skier (Western State College) Ben Arians was getting tired of getting smacked in the face by alders, willows and elderberry branches whenever he skied along the edge of the trail, in the classic tracks, here in Anchorage over the past few winters. He didn't think skiing on our City ski trail systems should feel like bushwhacking through the Chugach Mountains. So he decided that, rather than bitching about it, he would do something about it. And the result is his campaign to rid our city's ski trails of overhanging branches that create a safety concern and take the fun out of classic skiing.

Ben has been out there with a chain saw, loppers, wood chipper, and whomever he can recruit to come out and help him beat back the brush and tame the wilderness. Yesterday, it was the UAA Ski Team's turn to do our part. 

It felt good to get out there and help out for a few hours, to make our training and racing venues a better place to go skiing. But on the other hand, I have it on good authority that when we all went back to class and to our rollerski interval session the following morning, Ben Arians and John Mahaffey went right back to Kincaid Park the next morning and picked up where we left off the evening before. 

Flexing?  You decide.