Winter Carnival
This past week started out with a Monday morning meeting with Kevin Store to discuss our potential agreement between Chassell Township and the Portage Health Foundation to have the PHF function as the recipient of donations and fiduciary for our blight remediation assistance program. When we surveyed local residents about blight when preparing to include blight provisions in our zoning ordinance, we learned that a solid percentage of residents were will to donate to a fund to help economically disadvantaged residents address blight conditions. Our planning commission sees this program as important, because, in addition to improving the appearance of the community and helping these residents protect their homes, addressing issues with roofs, windows, and siding protects building envelopes and helps keep structures from becoming our next dangerous buildings in the community.
Starting to take a harder look at my cross country ski equipment in advance of the Border to Border Ski, I decided to replace my three-year-old Rossignol boots. The tie on my left boot does not stay cinched-up which seems to be a sure recipe for a stress fracture. I stopped at Down Wind in Houghton on Monday, but they didn’t have anything in my size. I drove up to Calumet where Cross Country Sports had both Rossignol and Salomon boots in my size. I opted for the Rossignol boot given its lighter weight.
Tuesday I ramped up my skiing mileage to 15 miles on the MTU Trails which also provide a nice opportunity to start breaking in the new boots. I ended up with blisters on top of my small toes on each foot, but antibiotic ointment and bandaids satisfactorily addressed these.
Wednesday afternoon, Julie and I went over to the Tolkien Trails at MTU where she took Red and Blue for a walk and I skied the slow conditions there and then we met up at the Nara Trailhead.
Winter Carnival was going on this week at MTU. Wednesday was the all-nighter for MTU students to work on their snow statues. Our Keweenaw Running Group run on Wednesday evening took us through all of the action down on the campus and then along the Houghton waterfront.
After slipping in this run I dropped Julie off for a Chassell Women’s Group meeting and dashed over to the Fire Hall for the Chassell Township Board Meeting. They did not have a quorum so we just had an informal discussion about current matters. My primary reason for attending was to present the Planning Commission’s recommendation that we enter into negotiations with Portage Paddle Sports about providing a rental concession for the township.
Thursday was a rather foggy day but the temperature was close enough to freezing that I encountered great skiing conditions at Swedetown. I increased the distance of my ski to 17 miles.
Friday was primarily a rest day and a day to get caught up on township related business. We had our friends Robert and Amy over for dinner. Robert is also doing the Border to Border Ski and is in the wave a day ahead of me.
Yesterday was my first foray into long-distance ski training as I put in a 50k ski at Swedetown. I skied 4 loops around Greenstone and the Bear Loops with an extra loop around Greenstone an two more around Len’s Loop to get there. The conditions were good for the first two and a half times around, but coming up Papa Bear the last two times was quite a grind as the temperature got above 40 degrees and softened up the tracks. The feet tolerated the distance well, but I clearly need to modify my poling technique as I was really starting to feel it in my arms toward the end of the ski.
Saturday evening, Julie and I headed into Houghton to check out the Winter Carnival fireworks from the Houghton waterfront. We stopped in for a beer at the Keweenaw Brewing Company where we ran into our hiking friends Paul and Ginger before heading back down to watch the fireworks.
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