ELK POINT – A total of 20 participants, volunteers and spectators ranging from four years old to their late 70s gathered at Elk Point Golf and Country Club on the last full day of winter to try out a 2.1 km cross country ski trail created the previous day during a track setting workshop.
An estimated two-thirds of those who attended were from Elk Point and surrounding areas.
Saturday’s event was sponsored by the Lakeland Cross Country Ski Club, which recently received a grant from New Horizons for Seniors, allowing them to purchase the necessary track setting equipment needed to prepare trails and launch their ‘Seniors on Skis’ program.
“It’s not just for seniors,” the club’s volunteer coordinator Joanne Lamoureux said, as her husband Pierre demonstrated the use of a specialized liquid wax suitable for current snow conditions. “It’s intergenerational, anyone can benefit. The younger seniors are running the club, providing opportunities for everyone.”
While this was the first time the opportunity was offered in Elk Point, St. Paul and area skiers already had their turn earlier in the winter, both on the St. Paul Golf Course and out at Westcove. Lamoureux said that school groups are also using the facilities, with Grade 4 and 5 students from Onchaminahos School at Saddle Lake having enjoyed the Westcove trails recently, “and I’ve got ideas for Myrnam.”
As for the seniors, she added, “we wanted to help Elk Point get their track set and maybe getting seniors interested in going to other areas in the Lakeland as well.”
“It’s a nice little trail, but you’ve got to find the right wax for the conditions,” Ferguson Flats resident Sandra Ockerman, who has already spent many hours enjoying skiing the Iron Horse Trail this winter, said. “It’s so good to for Elk Point to have something for winter, especially since they stopped tracking at Whitney and Ross Lakes... I think the government should be putting more money into recreation, to help with everyone’s mental health.”
According to Lamoureux, more Nordic skiing is definitely in the future across the Lakeland area as clubs band together to create loppets and other cross-country events for the younger set, and offer lessons to encourage new participants in the sport. The club didn't quite get through everything it had planned this year.