Casey Smith Biathlete: The road to Canmore

Before leaving Maine last week I had a couple of really fun opportunities. First off it snowed in the county, in Fort Kent we only got a couple of inches it was enough to ski in our front yard but that was about it. Further south in Caribou they got about 8 inches and so one of the cross country athletes fired up his snowmobile and groomed a 2km loop in the field behind his house. Considering that there wasnt that much snow and he was grooming by dragging a pallet behind his snowmobile the skiing was quite good. A couple days later it snow more in Fort Kent, this time it was enough to put on some rock skis and slog around the trails. It was not nearly as good as the skiing was in Caribou but we still had skis on our feet and were sliding around on white stuff.

The skiing in Caribou

My new Madshus ski bag all packed and ready to go

The skiing in Fort Kent

Last weekend before flying west the entire MWSC post highschool team got together in Portland, Maine for a fundraising gala. The event took place at the Portland art gallery, we mingled with the people donating and a couple of the athletes talked about what the MWSC program has done for them. The art in the gallery was very interesting I am not really an art expert but I think it would have been considered "modern" art. I couldn't imagine paying for any of the art that was in the gallery like the piece in the picture below, I thought it looked like it was drawn by a third grader, it could be yours for only $2,500.

A $2,500 piece of art

The next day after the fundraiser the MWSC crew joined the bates, bowdoin, and colby college ski teams aboard the North Haven Island ferry to compete in the Maine state college rollerski championship. I had never done this race before but it was super cool because it started with an hour long ferry ride out to the island then the 15km race made one loop around the entire island. I had an okay race I placed 5th overall. Just being on the island and seeing everything was awesome!

A lighthouse as were leaving the mainland on the ferry

Maddie on one of the island docks

Maddie with the all of the island docks in the background

Riding the ferry home we had a super cool sunset

After rollerski race I flew home to Washington and then drove to Canmore. I did this rather then flying straight to Canmore because I wanted to race the Canadian IBU cup trials that were taking place before the rest of the MWSC crew arrived. It was an uneventful but long trip. I arrived to Canmore just in time because up until two days before I arrive it had been very warm and the nordic center has been unable to make snow and the frozen thunder snow that people have been skiing on was getting very thin. Luckly it got cold and the snowmaking process was in full swing, right now there is about 2.5km of snow but there is going to be lots more very soon. Like I mentioned earlier I did the Canadian IBU cup trials races on the 2nd and 3rd day that I was here. The first day I shot 2,2 (4 misses) and my skiing felt very wobbly but that was expected since I havent been on snow very much this year. The second race felt much better I shot 1,1 and I felt like I could actually ski and not just flail around on skis.