I was born and raised in Alaska and grew up skiing. I raced on my high school team and skied regularly through my college years. I now live in Tallmadge and miss skiing much. I’m over an hour away from Chapin Forest (the nearest groomed trail); with three little kids it’s hard to get away for any length of time.
Tallmadge has only about three inches of snow on the ground but I thought if I packed the snow down onto the grass well enough I might get a good base. Yesterday I did about 50 laps around my house in my four wheel drive van. I packed down a 12 foot wide path pretty well.
This morning I couldn’t believe how skiable my track was. The packed snow is very hard, squeaky and reasonably smooth. I tried it out this morning; it was skiable but a bit rutty in places. I pulled out my snow blower and shot some snow onto the slightly barren spots. I then did another dozen or so laps in the van and mashed down the high spots. I (skate) skied before lunch and again before dinner. In spite of the cold, I had a blast. The time and gas that I have into making my loop is less than I would have spent driving to the nearest groomed trail. My trail is tiny, but it’s right outside my door. I just measured my loop from Google Earth; it looks to be 0.09 miles. That's about 11 laps for a mile or 34 laps for 5K.
Too many eskimos
A better view of the packed trail.
