Cross Country Skiing Lucky Streak

Vancouver Skiers to Stake Lake and Larch Hills

Friday to Sunday Jan. 24-26, 2014

As Vancouver Skiers depart for some cross country skiing at Stake Lake (near Kamloops) and Larch Hills (near Salmon Arm), two distinct streaks of cloud give the eastern sky a gold-encrusted flair.  One is a snow omen.  Snow we cross country skiers haven’t seen much of on the coast.  And the other?  It looks a bit like a swirl of decorative cake icing, but it’s not.  It’s hoarfrost or white frost, but that magic comes later on.  First, to stake out Stake Lake.

From arrival to departure at Stake Lake, our trip leader, Anna Bentley, tells us we’ve got four hours to play.  Blue skies, +4 degrees, tracks well set, packed and tracked — firm without iciness.  Friendly Stake Lakers are readying for some British Columbia Cup Races the next day, yet it’s serene on the trails.  There are Aspen groves, animal tracks in the snow, and rolling ranch land in the distance.  Pines scent the stillness. Some pack lunch in to the upper hut; others are happy to unpack brown bags at the club cabin.

Once at the Comfort Inn, Salmon Arm, we’ve got one hour before happy hour to shower, hot tub or dip before walking to restaurants like Setter’s Pub and Home Restaurant for family/ pub fare.   Our pub table enjoys halibut ‘n’ chips, wraps, prime ribs and stir fries.

Up early, Vancouver Skiers enjoy the Comfort Inn’s breakfast buffet.  Salmon Arm skies are overcast, and as we climb, it’s a bit foggy, but this is the magical temperature for white hoarfrost. Water vapour freezes into furry needles of ice that crystallize onto twig, needle, grass and even icicle ‘trees’.

It’s Robbie Burns Day.  We fittingly pass Highland Angus Cattle, and hum a few bars of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, one of a hundred tunes the ‘Bard’ of the Romantic Movement penned back in the late 1700s.

With ears popping, the plowed road winds above Salmon Arm into the domain of the Larch Hills Nordic Society who’ve just celebrated the 30^th anniversary of their club’s loppet the weekend before, dedicated to two-time Canadian champion, Reino Keski-Salmi.  We head to and from Cec’s Cabin in roundabout ways on trails like Skyview, Bilbo’s Bog, Larch Hills Road, Larch Hills Loop, Baby Moonwalk, Willow Switch, Frodo’s Bog, Panorama, Skytrail, Stig’s Loop and Alder Lane.

Once back at the bottom, between the parking lot and the chalet, two warmly-clad ladies are dishing apple ciders, hot chocolates, smokies, and a soup-o’-the-day.  This weekend, it’s beet borscht…scrumpdillyicious.  This is ‘Michele’s Dawg Waggin‘ dishing a quinoa “clucker”, a locally raised chicken sausage mixed with quinoa, red pepper, onions and spices.  Have it on a bun, fully dressed, or have a home-baked scone or butter tart with a hot apple cider, a hot mocha, or a herb tea.

Larch Hills Winery and its proprietor Jack Manser await.  Thanks to Anna Bentley’s organization, we spend our happy hour sipping and savouring red, white and dessert wines such as ‘Mad Angie’ (Madeleine Angevine), ‘Ortega’, ‘Semillon’, ‘Ortega Dessert’ and ‘Lemberger’, many of which are medal winners.  Cool climate grape growing makes Larch Hills Winery different from Okanagan Valley vineyards, and they’ve been crushing and processing their own since 1997.  Club members love to medal, so we take a few Larch Hills Winery prizewinners home.  But not before our bus driver, Len, drops us downtown for more Salmon Arm dinner choices like Paul Trantina’s find at Table 24, and we fuel up to revisit favourite trails Sunday morning.

Home is over the Coquihalla Connector via Kamloops.  Just as we tune into the 2005 movie, ‘Kinky Boots’, we’re on the Connector, and there, against the blue skies is a hoarfrosted forest.

Those white swirls at dawn have been a cross country skiing lucky streak in Larch Hills and Stake Lake. Vancouver Skiers at their best, frosted in hoar, or was that fairy dust?