Cross-Country Ski/Snowshoe Trip
Camp Gorham, Eagle Bay, N.Y. - January 17-19, 2003

Our January cross-country trip to Camp Gorham was fabulous, as usual. Tons of snow and tons of great food, all contributed by the participants.

Friday night we had a nice dinner at Big Moose Inn. Some of the crazy folks staying in the Cedar cabin, plus Steve from the Birch cabin, tried to burn off the calories from dinner with a late night snowshoe Friday night. It was so cold, Jackie came back with icicles hanging from her eyelashes. We roasted ourselves sleeping by leaving the heat up too high, but fixed that for Saturday night. Both mornings we had hot pancakes and scrambled eggs --- a great way to start an active day. The smoke alarm kept going off while the breakfast crew cooked, so fairly quickly the entire cabin was awake --- shock therapy.

The trails were great --- empty but tracked, and we were protected by the trees. Wonderful scenery. Saturday morning started out a little cold (-13), however it soon warmed up and we had a weekend of sunny weather. We did the hillier terrain when it was cold, enjoying the downhill runs. After skiing or snowshoeing, we had a hearty lunch of chili and soups and loads of other choices. Then out skiing again. Many of us toured the Cascade trail to see the frozen waterfalls. Melinda got the chance to try both snowshoes and cross-country skis for the first time.

A joint happy hour was held at Birch cabin and there were hot and cold hors d’oeuvres. Only the lure of dinner tore us apart. Saturday night the Birch cabin enjoyed cabin leader Richard’s stuffed shells with cheese and spinach, followed by an evening with many laughs. Cedar cabin wondered why we needed to borrow oil and a candle (massages?).

After Cedar cabin’s dinner of two kinds of lasagna, delicious herbed and toasted bread and salad (then coconut cake and cookies for dessert), we were too tired to play games. We did talk and laugh but never got up enough energy to do anything else. Jon would have talked all night if anyone had stayed up with him. Peggy hung in there for a while. Sunday most of Cedar toured Moss Lake. During lunch we hung the "Bruce" doll from the electrical wires --- which he didn’t deserve because on this trip he never tortured any of us --- but we enjoy doing it and he’s a good sport. What a terrific weekend with wonderful people!
- Gail U.