Sackville X-C Ski Club

Over 20 Years Ago ...

Thanks, Clarence :-)

Skiing is actually fairly good if you have waxless skis or Klister. A pile of kids stayed at the cabin last night so it is broken to there and Karen and Kate will likely have gone farther.
The great name debate continues with 7 votes for ski Sackville, 3 for the Sackville Outing Club, 2 for Skitur Sackville, One for Sackville X-C. Lots of other names have popped up including "Fast Flab" and "Skitur Fart" which means "ski tour fast" and is pronounces "shit or fart".... I have sense that this is far too important an issue to decide in cyber space so may delay things until the next potluck, likely on Feb 16th. Ross

Re: The Great Club Name Debate

By Graham Watt
If I may be impudent enough to comment on some other suggested names, I find Sackville Athletic to be more associated with games (and indoor ones at that) than outdoor, mostly aerobic recreation.

As I said before, SkiSackville is definitely about skiing and that’s good, but it has an alpine ring to it and cross country is leg powered, not gravity powered. It has a touristy feel I admit, but perhaps more travel agency than trail. Sackville Nordic is a good name.

My reason for coming up with the more omnibus Sackville Outing Club (SOC!) is that it covers the year ’round physical demographics  of members almost perfectly. And it specifically relates to outdoor activity. So much of what passes for exercise these days is indoors and anaerobic: hockey and basketball being examples.

Do we really need separate names for everything we do recreationally? Will there be a Sackville Cycling Club? A Sackville Snowshoe Club? A Sackville Hiking Club? A Sackville Cross Country Ski Club? Why wouldn’t we try to put an omnibus name to the outdoor activities we all enjoy here?

Sackville Outing Club would then have more heft and sway with the town as a centralized lobbying point for the activities of our like-minded citizens. Could not the Main Street Mile, the 5 K Folly, and the Sackville Triathlon not be under the aegis of the Sackville Outing Club?

And wouldn’t that little colourful SOC! symbol begin to be meaningful, on a newsletter, a trail sign, a race bib and a tee shirt? I realize this is a not as specific a skiing name as it might be but it has the potential to encompass all our efforts to get leg-powered recreational activities set strongly in the region, and in effect to get all of Sackville back on its feet.

Choosing a name which is open-ended enough to let healthy outdoor aerobic recreation thrive in Tantramar seems to be a worthwhile decision. I would like to see little Sackville concern itself with maximizing the number of its citizens it can attract to healthy outdoor exercise. Not just the spandexed aficionados.

One way is to put a little more critical effort in choosing a name which reflects the broadest opportunities for others, not presently engaged in outdoor  recreational pursuits to join us.

As for Sackville Outing Club having a homophobic air to it, perhaps we should send Eldon Hay around to McGill, Dartmouth (NH), Cornell etc., Outing Clubs to set them straight, if you catch my drift. Got to go. My meds are wearing off!!

Graham Watt 

Dear Sir or Madame:

You were out on the ski trail at Beech Hill Park today. The conditions were perfect when I went after you. The sky was a pale blue, the sun was shining and the trail had recently been track-set. A perfect day for a quiet ski in the woods.

I noticed that you too skied all of the Red Trail (5 KM) and most of the Blue Trail (3 KM). There were not many other skiers out today and perhaps you were the first one on the newly set tracks. Did you enjoy the view and the cold, clean air? Were you able to maintain a smooth kick and glide action? Perhaps your dog got in the way and you had to slow down?

You see, the entire track had been dug up by the paws of your dog. There were no other footprints, just ski tracks and paw prints; in many cases dug into the trail so deep that they will not be covered unless we get another good snowfall.

I have written a post on how ski tracks are destroyed by walkers and dogs, as the holes degrade the ability to kick off with our back ski. I'm sure that you know this, because you are a skier.

I would like to strongly suggest to you that if you like to ski with your dog in tow, then please go and make your own tracks and don't ruin it for every other skier who follows you.

SOC!

By Graham Watt:

Yesterday’s skiing on the CTT and later potluck dinner was definitely a pivotal point in Sackville’s cross-country community and I thank the organizers for their foresight. The new trail with its Crooked Tree feature is wonderful. Where else can you do a faceplant while standing up!? Seeing everyone so happy and talkative at the lean-to hot chocolate klatch reminded me of my old Viking Ski Club days, and indeed of the outdoor clubs so prevalent throughout Nordic Europe.

The club system in Europe opens up outdoor activities of various kinds to its members. All of them seem to be individual rather than team activities and they’re geared to family activity. There may be racing but the main element is participation. I think we have the nucleus of this spirit right now in Sackville and would like to suggest consideration of another name for the club.

I like SkiSackville and think it sums up the current dynamic but wonder if it isn’t a bit restricting, relative to the activities of all the people I saw enjoying themselves at the lean-to. Most of these people are cyclists, runners, hikers and walkers as well as skiers. The key to their lives is healthy outdoor social exercise, often with a family orientation.

If we have a new club which reflects the overall activity orientation of its members couldn’t it have a name which broadcasts its value? And wouldn’t this help in attracting more people to join, especially the young? One suggestion I would make is to broaden the club name to offer potential for more growth. The main difference between our new club and other winter clubs in Sackville is lungs over pistons. We like to do things on our own two feet. So my suggestion for a club name is to broaden the concept of what we all like doing.

This particular idea is not new. It has precedence in that McGill University has used it for years although the name has mostly been associated with both alpine and cross country ski touring. Here is a version of it, which I think would positively describe the club member’s activities throughout their year. Consider calling our new club: The Sackville Outing Club. Shortened to SOC and maybe even SOC! As in: SOC! Sackville Outing Club

The designers among us can orient this idea to logos, pins, badges, letterhead and trail signage. I have no talent in this area. But I present the idea in the hopes that we take some time now to define ourselves in a manner which fully exploits our potential for development of outdoor activities which bring and keep us all together in healthy environments.

A Sackville Outing Club would cover many activities from cross country skiing and trail development to hiking and walking to Orienteering to cycling. As with the McGill MOC, the major emphasis would be on skiing, but the potential would be there to tacitly promote many forms of healthy outdoor activity. That’s my suggestion. Yesterday afternoon and last night was inspirational and brings hope way past mere tracksetting and trail grooming.

Thanks again.

Graham Watt

Labels: FamilySki19thJan08

Ski Sackville Potluck

The day started with many skiers out on the trails, in spite of the not-quite-perfect conditions. Hot chocolate was offered at the lean-to and eye-witness reports estimate at least 50 skiers out, though I suspect that there were more.

The day ended with a potluck supper at St Paul's Church Hall, attended by over 60 people including many youth.


It was decided to go ahead with the creation of a non-profit organisation that would promote healthy outdoor activities, clear more trails and purchase equipment to maintain the trails. Of course, this is the place to get the latest information.

Stay tuned for more information about membership and events.

That woul be Saturday, not Sunday at Saint Paul's for the potluck, and skiing in the afternoon at the CTT.

CTT has been groomed and is quite lovely-just gets better and better! Cy's signs glow well in the headlamp and moonlight. Snow is great-lots of body and fairly fast. See you at Saint Paul's Sunday.

Has anyone been on the trails since the snow has fallen? Please post your observations here.

Yellow(Blue South) trail is clear of debris, has a new bridge and a foot of snow to the gravel pit by the intersection with the skidoo trail tho there is a bit of a stream for 30 meters in the upper 1/3. The big new gravel pit is even more of a mess than last year-you might be better if you want to do a loop to take a left after the former gravel pit at the top of the hill and head back to the ATV trail(Blue West) tho there may be a few snags on this one.
Also there is lots of coverage on most of the skidoo trails if one wanted to try step skis or klister. (I had a great, albeit brief ,run from the blue sign to the start of the access road at the TCH today) Unfortunately it's giving snow for tomorrow so that will wreck the great klister snow. Oh well we'll have to suffer through more hard waxing...

Mark Saturday, January 19th on your Calendar

Depending on snow conditions, we are planning a family ski for 1:30 PM on Saturday, with hot chocolate at the lean-to on Crooked Tree Trail.

This will be followed by a potluck supper at St Paul’s Church Hall (the Anglican one across from the Swan Pond on Main St) from 5 PM to 9 PM. Everyone is welcome. Please spread the word.

Bring a main course, dessert, or salad. Ski Sackville will use (as yet to be collected) membership dues to buy beverages. Also bring a few bucks to chip in for the use of the hall-likely around $100 (total).

If you have any ski gear to swap, sell or give away, bring it along.

Add your comments or questions here.

Crooked Tree Trail Now Track-Set

The CTT, named for the tree in the photo, is now being track-set by the Town, along with the trails at Beech Hill Park.

There are also plans for a cross-country ski event probably on the weekend of 9/10 February. Stay tuned for more information.