Mud and presidents and bikes, oh my!
Well, Happy (late) Presidents’ Day everybody! It has been a hectic weekend here at the Hobby Wheel, as all kinds of travelers were up here for the weekend. Now it’s time for Spring-Skiing.
Mud season
Mud season is here. I have had damp socks from walking outside, even with shoes on. The ground is softening everywhere. Spring skiing is here in full effect to match, which means bluebird days and warm weather. The groomed part of the hills still remains excellent, holding up with normal spring conditions. Conditions are prime for getting outside and enjoying your new (and not so new) alpine ski/snowboard equipment. After all, it’s peak season for sweatshirt skiing!
It's Forecast time again, and spring looks like it’s here to stay. With high 30’s to 40’s coming to stay, we will even see temps hitting 50’s on the 26th. The temperature does dip a few times, allowing for great snowmaking at night. Friday has a forecasted high of 17, but that seems to be the exception rather than the norm. Ski season is in full “spring” mode, so get out and enjoy the warm weather and snow while it lasts.
Last hurrah of racing
Here is the wrap up to our ski racing season since the last blog. Two major races have taken place, Regionals and U.P. finals. Regionals could almost have it’s own paragraph, but here’s the short version – All of the teams in our Region (Division II, Region 4) go to one hill – This time it was Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville, downstate MI – with a final race to see who makes it to state finals. Spoiler alert, I, nor any of our Ironwood team made it. I received a respectable 23rd out of 69 in GS, but had my first crash of the year when I hooked a ski tip on a gate right at the start of slalom. UP finals was just as exciting, with fewer teams. Our 4 U.P. teams competed to see who is the best in the U.P. This year, it was Marquette who took both for the boys and the girls. I placed 9th in Slalom and 11th in GS, and both Ironwood’s boys and girls teams placed 3rd overall. Since it was a home meet, some of you might have seen pictures and results from U.P. finals in the newspaper. Technically, there is still more racing to be had with Team Z, having a travel race up to Mt. Ashwabay and their home invitational, king of “Z” mountain in the next two weeks. But for High School racing, that’s a wrap.
Time for bikes
Back in the shop, it is time for some change. As I mentioned, Presidents day weekend has come and gone. So, we have begun to start our switch from Ski and Winter, to Bikes and Summer. You can expect to find our bike stock to start flowing into the store within the next few weeks. Additionally, we are preparing to increase more bike tune capacity. So, if you get your bike out from storage and find that you’re having trouble with shifting, your brakes aren’t working properly, or you have a flat tire - come in and we’ll get you rockin’ and rollin’ again.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to get outside and enjoy some vitamin D as we start to see more of it!
Happy Adventuring!
-Peter
