Even among us keen cross-country skiers, there is starting to be some level of winter fatigue. 
Plus, on Sunday, it was still looking to be a cold day. And it’s not like we have had much fresh snow, right? So with all those factors, it was perhaps not surprising there were only 11 Beaver Tailers out at Gai Luron last Sunday.
But those of us who made it to Gai Luron were glad we did! We had some of the best ski conditions we had seen anywhere all year. It turned out they had received several cm of fresh snow the day before. Add to that a beautiful sunny day, with a quite comfortable temp of -10 C. Also, the trails had just been freshly–and expertly–groomed. At that open area where all the 
trails start side-by-side, we were greeted by stretches of immaculately groomed corduroy snow. Once we got into the woods, the sun was streaming through the trees onto fluffy mounds of snow covering the ground and branches. The tracks were deep and perfectly formed in the new snow–no sign of old crunchy snow anywhere. Conditions were truly glorious!
All of us opted to start with the 8 km “L” trail. The two extra loops (boucles B & C) on that trail were closed but everything else was open. All the descents on the L had plenty of snow and were very controllable. We looped back to the chalet where we picked up a couple of late arrivals (skiers #10 and #11). The L trail was so enjoyable, most us of just did it again!
A couple of us had to overcome some “equipment checklist lapses” at the start of the day. Winnie forgot to bring her ski boots and Scott arrived with the wrong skis. But they were both able to quickly rent the missing equipment and so they enjoyed a full day of skiing with the rest of us.
It was just another one of those days at Gai Luron where you marvel at how nice it can be to spend the morning skiing at a center located only 40 minutes away!