A Bit of History #3

Year 2, 1985-86

Tob and Joan deBoer spent the year in the Netherlands and Michael Ogg took over the Presidency for that year, with Bob Lubarsky as secretary.

Again major plans were made, trips announced, the Ithaca Nordic Ski Festival was organized with the same events as the first year, to be held at the Mount Pleasant location, and participation was predicted to double. However, Tob must have taken the cold and snow with him; a major rainstorm washed away the Ski Festival that year.  The warm weather covered all of the Northeast so it wasn’t just Ithaca.

As a note, the race would have been sponsored by

The Bike Rack in Collegetown

Black Star Bicycles in East Hill Plaza

Harolds’ Army-Navy on the Ithaca Commons

Klein’s All Sport in Pyramid Mall

Nippenose in the Dewitt Mall

Tops of Meadow St.

UpFront in Center Ithaca

Only the Bike Rack and Tops survive today.  How many of these do you remember?  I don’t remember UpFront but all the rest are familiar to me.

American Youth Hostels

Another activity the club promoted was involvement with the American Youth Hostels (AYH).  There was an Ithaca Chapter and Louise Adie helped organize ski tours that would stay at Hostels in places like Stowe, Ottawa, La Anna in the Poconos, Belleayre in the Catskills, Lake Placid, the Canadian Ski Marathon, and even Norway.  Trips were suitable to all levels of skiers, with instructions available for beginners.  There were also arrangements for 9 Ithaca area people to stay at a YMCA for the Chatauqua Ski Marathon.  There is no information about how many club members actually went on any of these trips.

Tours

Weekly trips started out hiking in late November and early December. Club members were pretty hardy back then, for instance this posted trip called “Reconnaisance” led by Dave Blanpied on December 1:

“Hike the ski trails connecting Yellow Barn and Hammond Hill ski areas.  About 8 miles, some rather steep grades.”

And the next week “Reconnaisance Continued” also led by Dave:

“Hike the ski trails connecting Hammond Hill and Robinson Hollow ski areas. About 8 miles, some rather steep grades.”

Also, as an introduction to the tour list is this paragraph:

“There will probably be three tours at each scheduled skiing event: 1-3 miles for people who enjoy a leisurely outing; 6-8 miles for those who prefer to stay out for 3-4 hours (bring your lunch); 12-20 miles for the snow birds.  All participants should be able to snowplow because all tours have at least moderate down-hill runs.”

I think they forgot to tell the ‘snow birds’ to bring their sleeping bags!  I wonder how one trip leader managed this. 

On the other hand, one trip offered a pot of hot beef stew on top of Yellow Barn, bring your own bowl and spoon.  Stew reservations required.  This was also led by Dave Blanpied.

 Year 3 1986-87

 

Fall Meeting

At the fall meeting in 1986 about 30 members gathered for dinner and a business meeting.  The new officer roster was voted in:

Tob deBoer                President

Dave Blanpied           Vice President

Joan deBoer               Secretary

Nick Vandam             Treasurer

Gary James                Coach

Louise Adie                 Promotions

Gary James discussed and demonstrated the new ski-skating techniques.

Tob and Joan presented slides of their Nordic winter in Europe, including ski marathons in the Dolomites and the Alps.  They also described ice-skating on the canals and lakes in the Netherlands, culminating the 200 km “11-City-Tour” in the province of Frisia.

The Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Tour) is the biggest ice-skating tour in the world. Over fifteen thousand ice skaters defy the ice encouraged by hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic fans. The waterways between eleven Frisian cities form the 200 kilometer track of the Eleven Cities Tour. That’s why this sensational ice-skating event can only take place during severe winters.  The first Elfstedentocht took place in 1909 and has been held 15 times in total.

 

  And now, the summer option

Maps

All members receive a set of ski maps, tho they caution that many of the trails on the maps are not actually marked in the field. And not all trails in the woods are on the maps.  “The combined length of the trails shown on the Yellow Barn/Hammond Hill/Robinson Hollow forests now amounts to as much as 70 km.“  I don’t have any maps of this amazing trail system but this was back when Yellow Barn Rd was not plowed from end to end and was part of any Yellow Barn Ski outing.  Does anyone ski in the Robinson Hollow area?

Coaching clinics could not be held at Willowood due to “the fire”.  They now depended on moonlight and snow.

Ithaca Nordic Ski Festival

“Favored by brilliant sunshine and only slightly hampered by low temperatures, the Festival was a definite success.”

All events were held at the Dusenberry Sportsman’s Club, access on Midline Rd or Yellow Barn Rd.  Race information warns:  “Facilities at Dusenberry are limited. There are separate outhouses for men and women, but no dressing rooms or running water.”  Still beats the Hammond Hilton!

The Festival was co-run with the Finger Lakes Biathlon, Inc and featured a Biathlon, a Biathlon Try-It, Citizens Nordic Race and an ESG qualifying race.  Sponsors were Black Star (main sponsor), The Antlers, Rosetti’s restaurant, Kleins Sporting Goods, Rosebud Restaurant, McDonalds, Cornell orchards, and the P&C.  The electronic clock was lent by the Finger Lakes Runners Club, the bullhorn by the Finger Lakes Cycling Club.

There were over 160 entries total and 30 names were listed as volunteers.

Here are the results not counting the Biathlon:

I remember this race very well.  I dogged Joan for most of the race, it was hard to pass on the narrow trails and I was working hard just to keep up.  Finally I blew her off on a downhill, as she was very conservative with her speed.  Not me.  So much for the usual advice ‘you won’t win the race on the downhills’.  As a prize I won a Rossignol shoulder bag which I used for skiing and for travelling for many years until it finally fell apart. Best thing I ever won and always reminded me of this race.  I also came away with great respect for Joan, who was at least 20 years my senior.  I vowed to be as good a skier as she when I hit 50.  Now that I am beyond that, I think I succeeded.  Joan is still in good shape and I still look to her for inspiration.

Tours

This year the newsletters included trip reports.  Here are excerpts:

Nov 16  Three muddy mountain bikers completed somewhat less than the 16 miles from Hammond Hill to Robinson Hollow.

Nov 23  Six hearty brush clearers rerouted small sections of the yellow and blue trails at Hammond Hill.

Nov 30  Six bikers took on Connecticut Hill, icy roads, swollen streams and all.

Dec 7  Armed with red, green, blue and yellow trail markers, hammers, nails, maps and a DEC permit to mark trails on Hammond Hill, five club member went to work.  Trails were marked with painted Ball jar lids and colored tape.  (Note that these are not the same trails as we know them today.)

Dec 14  Three skiers in Robinson Hollow managed to find enough snow to do an 8-mile loop, only removing skis once.

Dec 21  Four club members skied an unscheduled 8 miles on Hammond Hill.

Jan 31  Nine club members met for a beginner/intermediate tour on parts of the Dusenberry course in Yellow Barn Forest.  A few enthusiasts brought lunch and did an extension of the tour.

Feb 1  Sixteen club members, led by Dave Blanpied.  “enjoyed 8 miles of Extra Blue skiing in Yellow Barn Forest, starting with the North Loop, then down Signal Tower Rd, down a very steep grade near Dusenberry (snowy hats indicated a few head plants were made) up puff, puff Yellow Barn Rd and back to the cars parked at the head of Tehan Rd.” A loop that is no longer possible, after someone build a house on YB Rd.

Feb 8  Three clubs (doesn’t say which 3, but the Adirondack Club is a good possibility) met and skied at the “beautifully engineered and scenic trails” at Highland Forest. Led by Rob Reavill.

Feb 14  Four skiers braved 8 degree weather for what was intended to be a short tour on the blue and red trails at HH, but after finding a trail blocked off, they ended up bushwacking to the intersection of Midline and Irish Settlement Roads, and then returned to their cars.  (See note above about trails.) The leader of this tour was posted to be Lucy Gagliardo, but Lucy doesn't remember this adventure so it's more likely that (husband) Nick Vandam led this trip and was responsible for the actual route taken.  Anyone remember this?

          Feb 15  Conn Hill tour canceled because of extreme cold.  This must have been the day I skied with Dave  Blanpied at Conn Hill.  It was very cold and windy, no one else came.  Dave worried about frostbite and we covered our cheeks and noses with Chapstick.

Feb 22  A dozen beginning and intermediate skiers did the blue and red loops at HH in warm, waxless  weather.  Led by Carol Bayles (however, I have no memory of this endeavor.  I didn’t even own waxless skies back then).

Feb 28  Light rain but plenty of snow in Arnot maple forest.  Seven skiers, only one was a club member, the others were former Peace Corps volunteers having a reunion.

March 1  Lots of snow everywhere and a lots of rain, too but three members skied at Connecticut hill, doing a loop past the cemetery and the former rangers cabin.  Led by Dave Blanpied.

March 15  Same 3 skiers did a grand tour of HH and Robinson Hollow, with creeks to cross and bare spots to walk over, a magnificent ending to a great season. 

Overall, Dave Blanpied led a great many trips in these early years.  There are several informal trails named after him at HH.