Meeting Up at Oivanki

When I last left you, I was heading out to look for ski wax. I loaded up my gear and stopped by the front desk to check out. The desk clerk gets very high marks, because not only did he direct me what store to go to (Prisma), he got me to the precise place in the store. Clearly cross country skiing is a serious matter here as this was the selection in a department store. A big thanks to G for being awake at such an early hour back in Houghton to coach me via text on my wax selection!

The next order of business was figuring out how to get to our event meet up location at Oivanki. I couldn't get anyone at the phone number posted at the taxi cab stand in front of the store so I went back in and started asking people how to do it. What I really enjoyed about this experience was that everyone I talked to was willing to try to help regardless of how proficient they were in English. I finally was directed to a young woman at the front of the store who happily made a call and got me the cab I needed. Veronica picked me up with a Volvo taxicab. We had a very nice conversation on the way to Oivanki. Veronica is into skijoring with her Doberman and even shared a video of doing it after we arrived.

Check-in was quick and right away I met one of my roommates, Michael, who is from Perth, Australia. Michael is 71 and is retired from his company that produced software for the airline industry. We had a far ranging discussion that was quite enjoyable and went on for well over an hour.

At 4:00 p.m. I made my way to the sauna which was definitely of an industrial size with a large u-shape with a double bench. There were easily 12 of us in there all the way around the top bench with a group of Slovenians, a couple Finns, a German, and the balance of us from the U.S. The resort has a hole cut in the ice down a long walkway from the sauna. After taking steam for awhile, I decided to brave the 18 degree F. temperature with snow falling and headed down to the lake with Craig from Missoula, Montana, to take the plunge. It was so crazily refreshing I ended up making two trips into the lake.

From the sauna, I went to dinner which consisted of potatoes, some type of small fish batter-fried like you would smelt, a salad with some very tasty berries, and a non-alcoholic dark beer which was outstanding! I had dinner with Craig and his wife Sherry. It was very nice getting to know them and about the adventures they have been going on here in the region.

At 8:00 p.m. we had an orientation session that included all of the participants. Heikki Heikura who I had contacted about participating in the event took the lead on the presentation.

After the presentation I grabbed a banana at the evening snack and had a conversation with Marcel from the Twin Cities who I am going to try and ski with on day 1.

It seemed like turning in made a lot of sense at that point so I headed back to the room to get things ready for the coming day's ski.

Our roommate Jared had arrived so I took some time getting to know him. He characterized himself as a freelancer and is here from London. He rollerblades back home.

I am definitely jacked up about getting started! The next time you hear from me will be post-Day 1!