So. How Was Your Birkie?

Hear hear on the fleecing we cross-country skiers are now suffering at Three Rivers [“Getting Fleeced,” February]. It is a pain in the rear, but if it makes skiing better, I guess I can take it. Now we hear that the state DNR is cracking down on skiers as well, but you just have to ask why, when by their own admission the vast majority of skiers have state ski passes, and those who don’t are merely getting warnings? Anyway, I’d like to clarify that this issue is not with the city parks per se but what we used to consider the county parks out in the suburbs. Thanks to Mayor R.T. Rybak, among others, city parks are actually the same price they always were—free—and the quality and quantity of ski-trail grooming has gone way up. The City of Lakes Loppet was a great success, not just as a race but as an organizing and training device for city skiers, who were treated to a world-class course on which to train throughout the season—right here in our front yards. I, for one, am going to stop driving out to Bloomington and Elm Creek, not just in protest of the sky-high fee hikes, but in celebration of city skiing.
Tom Anderson,
Minneapolis