Hi everyone.

Birch Brook will be closed today. There's too much snow in the car parking areas, and around the chalet, and the wind is causing sizeable drifts. The clearing operation will begin as soon as the snow stops, which is forecast for sometime tomorrow.

Happy shovelling!

If you've been to Birch Brook during the week, you will have met Charles-Antoine and Sebastien, our two Katimavik volunteers, who help to staff the chalet. You may have met other Katimavik participants at the SPCA, the Friendship Centre, Them Days, the Military Museum, the Long-Term Care Facility and several other venues that benefit from having more helping hands for tackling important tasks.

During each rotation there is a week of billeting with local families to enhance the cultural experience. Of course, this arrangement works both ways!

Please see the attached poster. If you are interested in hosting a participant, please contact Chelsea. If you are unable to be a host, please print the poster to display at your workplace.

Thanks!

Betty Anne

Hi everyone,

You've already heard about our potluck supper on Saturday, followed by a full moon ski or snowshoe outing, but there's more!

Graham, who is still in Ottawa, has asked us to tell you about "Fast & Furious", a mass participation relay which will start at 4:00 pm before the potluck supper.

"We need as many as possible to enter, and teams will be made as even as
possible, ie the fast ones will be mixed with the not so fast. More details
later, but please sign up by contacting Birch...

The Birch Brook Nordic Ski Club can assist members in selling equipment they no longer need or find equipment they would like to purchase.

Click here or see the link to the Ski Swap page in the menu at left. Send an email to birchbrooknordic@gmail.com to post your item.

Hello everyone.

Congratulations to all the skiers who Skied Around the Games Trail today. We had a great time, and it was an excellent personalchallenge for everyone.

Special thank yous go to John and Diane Houlahan, who looked after the registration and timing, and getting the prizes; to my daughter Lindsey, who held the traffic at bay while the skiers flashed byacross the roadway; and to Sam who discovered a flat tire on the Piston Bully and had to groom the trails the old-fashioned way,...

Hi everyone.

It's too cold to be out in the open for too long today, so we have postponed our Ski Around the Games Trail until next Sunday. Birch Brook is open and I'm sure there will be skiers on the trails, but they can get in amongst the trees whenever they want and out of the wind.

See you on the trails.

Cheers.

I hope as many skiers as possible will join in a ski around the Games Trail this Sunday, Jan. 22, at 2 p.m. This will be the first part of a comparison of an early season ski and one we will do later on, and we can all see how much we have improved.

We'll have the timing clock in place, and although it doesn't matter how long anyone takes, everyone can compare their times and the level of effort it takes when they try the same course in April. It will help if all the participants can register...

The Birch Brook Nordic Ski Club is closed today, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, due to heavy snow, the need for snow removal in parking lots and access road. The weather forecast calls for wind and drifting in the afternoon.

Snowclearing cannot be arranged until snow has stopped falling and drifting. Grooming will be the best possible under the circumstances but is impossible to maintain until conditions settle. Status for Sunday, Jan. 15 to be announced.

Good luck to all the Jackrabbit skiers and those in the Track Attack program. This might not be the easiest time of year for skiing, but all the efforts made now, when the snow is soft and the weather cold, pays off later on when you have learned the skills and have the fitness to enjoy long days of skiing.

What a fantastic potluck supper we had last weekend. Eighty people at a potluck was amazing, and as always the food was delicious. The cold weather didn't seem to matter as skiers and...