Since there is little I can do to improve the status of Maine’s longest season I recently decided to adopt an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em attitude.” My boyfriend Tim and I have lived in Maine for four and a half years, but we have rarely taken part in any outdoor winter activities.

This past Saturday we both found ourselves with the day off and we decided to try one of the great winter pastimes of the state of Maine — skiing. Tim has never skied, and I have only one experience in junior high school that involved a winter camping back packing trip, sleeping outside in sub zero temperatures, and spending more time on the ground than gliding through the trails, again not a good fit for a winter hater like myself.

We headed to Pineland Farms in New Gloucester to rent skis and try our hand at cross-country skiing on one of their beginner trails. Pineland offered lessons, but we were confident that we would strap on our rented skis and be off on our way to winter bliss. 

“Have you ever skied before?” the man at the counter inquired.

“Water skiing in Minnesota,” Tim answered.

“Once in junior high,” I chimed in and explained my back packing story.

The man gave us a curious look, but we weren’t worried. How hard can it be, right?

The answer to that question, which I learned almost immediately, is very hard. Tim and I began (after several minutes of trying to get our ski boots to connect to the skis) by gliding through tracks a more experienced skier had made earlier in the day.

“This is harder than I thought,” I called out to him as we inched along at a snail’s pace. The friendly man who rented us our skis told us to stay on the beginner’s path and we would be OK. There are fewer hills on that path, he said as he handed us a map. We agreed this was a good idea and spoke of the difficulty of trudging up the small hills, we never thought we would be going down them.

Staying on the beginner’s trail seemed easy enough, never mind that map reading is probably my worst skill, second only to any kind of math. We skied along said path for about a half an hour before we veered slightly off course and found ourselves at the top of a hill. Now this hill was not big at all, in fact if we were sledding we would scoff at the hill and head for a steeper one. However for two first time skiers, this small bump in the trail might as well have been Mount Everest.

“You go first,” I encouraged him as frightening images of me tumbling headfirst down the hill filled my head. I was more than willing to throw my boyfriend under the bus just so I could evaluate how he made it down the hill before trying it myself.

Tim reluctantly started down the hill, and before long I knew he was going to fall. His arms were flung out to his sides at crazy angles as he tried unsuccessfully to regain his balance before tumbling a few feet forward. 

I was still laughing as I began my trek down the tiny slope. I tried to remember what the man at the counter had said, always fall on your butt was it? Somehow this did not register with me and I fell, three times, forward onto my knees. We were both laughing so hard we could barely stand up, but we managed, and we found our way back to the beginner’s path.

Just a few more hills and we’ll be back at the outdoor center, we told ourselves. With renewed confidence Tim started down a smaller hill, when he neared the bottom he saw a family gathered near a group of trees and he began to panic.

As he wiped out, the family asked if he was OK.

“I fell on purpose,” he told them. “I don’t know how to stop and I didn’t want to hit you guys.” 

Note to self, learn how to stop on skis before attempting the activity again.

As Tim struggled to get up, a woman — obviously an accomplished skier —effortlessly glided across the trails and lapped us for the fourth time. By the time we made it back to the outdoor center to return our skis we had each fallen a dozen times, and I had a goose egg on my knee that required several hours of ice later that evening, but we had fun which was the point of our whole adventure.

I learned there are some fun things that can be done outside during the winter and we’ve even discussed taking a lesson, but I still enjoy summer far more. We’re already thinking about signing up for surfing lessons, I mean how hard can it be? 

— Brandi Neal