“Since when was ‘wench’ a verb?” someone asked me. Well, ever since a number of years ago when a group of gals decided to get together on Wednesdays to ski, mostly off-set track.
A name for the group was discussed and alliteratively “Wednesday Wenches” seemed to be a good fit. So now when the call goes out “Let’s wench!” we all know that we will gather on Wednesday to ski and explore.
Our name has less to do with who we are than the fact that it is alliterative. In fact, on many occasions we have absorbed fellows who wish to join us in our adventures.
Soon after the Wednesday Wenches started their outings, a group of guys started going out on Thursdays to ski off-set track, and more recently to snow shoe. They dubbed themselves the “Geezers.” I guess it is tougher to find an alliterative name for Thursday.
I have been on many Geezer adventures. And their connection goes all year – mountain biking in the summer, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter, hiking in the shoulder seasons.
We tend to save our Thursdays for geezering year round.
Larch Hills Nordic Society members who wish to join these wench and/or geezer outings can go to the club website and find the contact info there: www.skilarchhills.ca. It’s a great way to explore our ski area.
The Santa Cruise on Sunday was a roaring success. Fifty-two skiers in the event, then the auction made a good chunk of money for the local food banks.
Congrats to the volunteers, led by Blaine Carson, for such a wonderful initial event of our ski season – and to Santa for taking the time out of his busy schedule to ski with us.
There have been quite a number of sightings of a bull moose on the trails in the past couple of weeks. First sighting was down in the playground area off the canine trail.
Then on Monday I talked to a couple of skiers who had seen the rump of a moose as it took off down the trail in front of them, then another gal who saw the fellow on Ermine Frolic.
To quote our website: “A bull moose seems to be browsing in our lower ski area (South Hub – Chalet area). He may be acclimatized to skiers and seem tame.
“He is a wild animal and needs to be treated respectfully and as potentially dangerous. Do not approach him – remain calm and quiet and move away from him.”
More Reino Keski-Salmi Loppet history: When a group of us met in Maureen Defoe’s living room in the fall of 1984 to discuss the prospect of a Larch Hills Marathon we took on the challenge with great enthusiasm. There weren’t many marathons in the province at that time so we had to essentially start from scratch.
Without computers it was a completely different experience from the electronic world we know today – everything was done by hand. I remember spending many evenings in Jim’s office photocopying entry forms, mailing out to clubs, receiving entry fees in the mail and keeping track of all the ins and outs in a ledger.
Timekeeping was done solely by hand/stopwatches and the results were prepared by hand. Thirty years have brought many welcome advances in technology, I must say.
Tomorrow evening, Dec. 28, is the Lantern Ski. Enjoy the magic.
Think snow!