February is high season for cross-country skiing around these parts. Minnesota and Wisconsin are the Mecca and Medina of this arcane sport. The American Birkebeiner in Hayward, Wisconsin (February 19; never mind Atkins, you better start carbo-loading today), is all the evidence we need that the nation—and much of the world, actually—comes here to celebrate winter’s most athletic event. Also noted: This week, the second annual City of Lakes Loppet proves that the Twin Cities are the urban center of all this woolly flapdoodle.
There are other subtle signs. A few weeks ago, we shuffled into the local ski shop. We’d been blessed not only by early snow, but by the serendipitous visit of Thomas Aalsgaard. If you were Norwegian, you’d know that Aalsgaard is the Roger Maris of the cross-country skiing world. (He always stood slightly in the shadow of Bjorn Daehlie, the sport’s undisputed Babe Ruth, even though he had better form and was a faster sprinter. You may recall Daehlie as the single most decorated Olympian, any season, any sport.) A handful of locals turned out to meet a guy who’s the equivalent of a rock star back home.
Still, it’s the nature of cross-country skiers even in Norway to stand back, to seek solitude and simplicity. We know for sure that the knickers-and-knee-socks folks are notorious pinch-pennies, and we have our own private rage to prove it. If you’ve been on the trail lately, you’ll know that Three Rivers Park District quietly installed a new “fee structure” for Nordic skiing. What used to cost seven dollars per year now costs around seventy dollars per year, and instead of the honor system, you’ll officially be tagged with a misdemeanor if you ski without a whole array of tickets, passes, permissions, and receipts.
What’s worse than the overall price tag is the strong sense one gets that one is being fleeced by a spanking machine of government agencies, each desperate to get their last measure of pocket lint. The state requires a DNR ski pass to tread on any trail in Minnesota,
including city and regional parks. Three Rivers wants a patron pass and a skiing pass. All passes are daily or annual, but only certain combinations are available at the park itself, trail passes are needed even if you’re skiing at the downhill areas, but they are not needed for sledding or dog-walking, and…and… If this sounds like far too much mental investment for what was intended to be a soul-salving skate through the woods, then we’re on the same page. We don’t generally go to the park for more paperwork, expense, and irritation.
Now, there is some payoff for all this fee-taking. The greater Metropolitan area continues to invest in its reputation, the best west of Oslo, for promoting cross-country skiing. The green shirts are hip to the value of trail groomers, quality ski rentals, and warm chalets. They’re even making snow up in Elm Creek Park, a terrific and long overdue idea that lends cross-country the same institutional value as downhill skiing.
Still, no amount of sugar makes us happy about the medicine. The parks were one of the few places left where regular citizens could enjoy the feeling that the taxes we pay actually underwrite privileges we exercise. Now we’re shelling out both the taxes and the price of admission. Call it government at the point of purchase, and hate it with all your being. If there is a God in heaven, He will send more Republicans to the park to see what they have wrought. Allegedly, we are no longer getting fleeced on April 15. Instead, it’s happening in our leisure time, year-round.
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