I woke up, Saturday morning, ready to take on the world. My friends outfitted me with some borrowed cross country skis of the classic persuasion (no skating in Copper Harbor). I was quite nervous about our little ski journey because I had absolutely no experience with classic skis and the groomed trails of two tracks. I was afraid of getting hung up in the tracks and being unable to snowplow when fear got the best of me. Fortunately for me, that wasn’t the case.

We started on the Copper Harbor loop. It runs from town to Ft Wilkins State Park, through the park, and back to town, again. It turned out to be the perfect beginner loop. It offered great views of the park and Lake Fanny Hoe and had nice stretches of easy skiing for practicing technique.

I am oftentimes quite vocal when getting outside and having a great time. I think it has to do with my ability to be easily amazed and entertained. I would ski a bit and then ask Johanna how I was doing. “You’re doing great!” she would say. I would remark on how I got a good glide or beam with pride when I could ski uphill.

After lunch, Rachel and I headed up to the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge to meet a photographer and a videographer for some promotional work for recreation in Copper Harbor. No one else showed up, so Amanda, Rachel, and I were the models by default. Now, when the three of us get together, it isn’t exactly a G-rated meeting. We are sick, twisted, giggly, fun-loving, aggressive women who play off of each other quite well. It didn’t take long for our true colors to shine through, and the photographer loved it.

You know the joke about being so ugly the camera breaks? Well, I can tell you that I have no business being a model. Oddly enough, the photographer’s camera wouldn’t work, so he had to borrow from the videographer.

We started the photo shoot with a snowshoe hike. After the first few pictures, the photographer wanted us to “go back and do it again.” We all turned around to head back to our starting point when I encouraged Amanda to run. She started running, tripped, and flew face first into the snow. I start laughing at her, tripped, and flew face first into the snow. Rachel just stood there and watched and laughed at us like the idiots she knows we are. It was great fun!

After the snowshoe hike, it was time to don the cross country skis, again. What is really funny about this whole photo shoot thing is that none of us have been classic skiing for long, and this was, in fact, my very first day. Fortunately, skate skiing turned out to be a great foundation for practicing classic skills.

I really enjoyed the Mountain Lodge trails. We didn’t do many of them because we were only looking for the potentially great photo ops. We skied down a pretty exciting hill on the golf course. Rachel insisted on going first, so I followed her down. She got going really well; so did I. As I flew downhill, I began to yell, “Whooooo!” while laughing at the same time. It turned out to be more like a staccato “Woo hoo! Woo hoo! Woo hoo!” much like Daffy Duck. Yeah, I’m a dork.

I saw Rachel approach a corner and go flying off the trail. I, of course, laughed. The remarkable part is how I automatically picked up my right ski and used it to plow down the hill and slow the pace a bit. I safely navigated around Rachel and enjoyed the ride down the rest of the hill.

When all was said and done, Rachel and I had both completed two hours and forty minutes of skiing along with an hour of snowshoeing. It was a pretty busy day that is definitely worth repeating.