Weekend in Wisconsin

The weekend trip to Wisconsin to do the BirkieTour, a 22.5 km cross country skiing event, went very well in spite of the very cold weather. Our hosts were Scott and Jodi from Rovers, who have a cabin up there. They had invited us up for the weekend to join them in the BirkieTour. It was a very nice cabin, but it was very cold (-20 degrees (c) when we got there, and as there was only a wooden stove to heat the place it took a couple of hours to warm up the place. 

Jodi and Scott's cabin

We could see our breath indoor

After a couple of hours of sleep on a one-person top bunk, we were driving towards the ski event. It was -27 degrees (c) !!! So we prepared with multiple layers of clothes, toe warmers in the boots and hand warmers in the gloves and then we were ready.

The start got postponed 1½ hour as it was too cold. By the time we started the temperature had risen to around -16 degrees (c).

On the bus on our way from Telemark to the start, all greasy in order not to get frost bites.
In the background: Jodi and Scott.

It was a very nice race with quite a few hills on the way and the temperature was really not an issues when we got moving.

Laura after the race

In the evening we went to a nice Gastro-Pub in a nearby town and a had a well-deserved meal and a beer. During the weekend our hosts and other people we met at the race convinced us to the American Birkebeiner, 54km cross country skiing race, that takes place in late February, so now we really need to get started with some more ski training.

On the way home we stopped by a frozen lake where there were a lot of small ice fishing huts and cars! on the middle of the lake. So we (Michael) decided that we also wanted to test our cars ice driving skills and took it for a short spin on the ice.

We also stopped by the US Pond Hockey Championship, where they have a hockey tournament where al the games are played on a frozen lake with a bit different rules than normal hockey.