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ALPENA -- The Thunder Bay Trails Association prepares to hold its annual Youth Cross Country Ski Club on Sunday.
"It'll be a little crazy," said Jeff Blumenthal, president of the Thunder Bay Trails association. "Everybody shows up all ready to go, sometimes equipment fits, and sometimes it doesn't. The big thing is to just be patient with yourself and go out and have fun."
According to Blumenthal, children and parents alike will get an opportunity to learn and practice cross-country skiing along different trails
Events will be held in Alpena every Sunday from Jan. 28 to Feb. 18 with the possibility of an additional meeting if the weather makes it appropriate.
This Sunday's class will be held at the Alpena Golf Course Cross Country Ski Trail which according to Blumenthal, is the ideal trail for beginners due to its flat and straightforward terrain.
"Golf course is a good place for the kids to start out because it's really flat," said Blumenthal. "We take kind of an assembly line approach."
While this event is typically extremely popular in Alpena, Blumenthal notes that this year there was a particularly large interest amongst younger children, so much so that the trails association had to spend $500 on additional equipment to accommodate.
"This year, we've got an unusually large number of kids from ages four to six," said Blumenthal. "We just filled up and ordered another 500 dollars worth of equipment yesterday."
Blumenthal credits the increasing popularity of the club to the lack of resources and opportunities for those who may be interested in cross-country skiing to give it a try.
"This program was started because the skiing in the area had floundered for quite a few years," said Blumenthal. "A lot of people had never really been exposed to cross-country skiing."
For Blumenthal, the ultimate goal of the program is to expose the community to a low-cost family activity that he believes can provide a lifetime of fun.
"It's a very inexpensive sport for parents to participate in," said Blumenthal. "It gets the kids out of the house, gets them off the devices and gets them some outside fresh air. It's a lifetime sport. I see a lot of families that started off in the program and they're all skiing with their kids, which is cool because that's really the intent of all this. Get the kids out there to do something with their family that they can all do together."