Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Page A-9
Winding Trails: by Al Hobart
Thursday, February 16, 1967
Illinois Valley News
Lake of the Woods
x-c ski races
With my tongue making a third
track between my skis in the deep soft
snow, I at long weary last came to the
packed trail that some blessed ski-doo
had laid in the snow-filled road up
Page Mt. way. From that point for 1½
miles I glided easily and thankfully
down the road to my waiting jeep.
This heroic event took place
four days before our up-coming
Oregon Nordic x-c ski races at Lake
of the Woods, and I was “training” for
the big event.
I almost trained myself out of
the running on that trip. For 6 miles I
plowed through deep new snow, my
narrow racing slivers letting me sink
to knee depth for much of the way.
Once I stepped in an exceptionally
soft spot and fell over sideways into
that bottomless fluff. With my heavy-
mitted hands effectively handcuffed to
ROGUE VALLEY
the long ski poles by the wrist straps,
and the skis with my imprisoned feet
nowhere in sight, for a while I was
in much the same position as the
gentleman I read about in Gulliver’s
Travels. It was only when I noticed
the snow melting all around me that I
became aware of the language I was
using.
From where I had left the end
of the ski-doo track I had skied up
the Happy Camp road to the Hell’s
Hole turn-off, and up this road to its
junction with the old Happy Camp
road. I continued up the old HC road
to within a short distance of the Bolan
Lake junction, then back down the
new road, fighting the soft snow ev-
ery foot of the way downgrade.
The day before the races was a
holy terror–heavy rain and high wind.
I expected the races to be postponed
for a week, but when I arrived at
Pruitt’s place in Grants Pass with
my racing equipment Bill gave me
the glad tidings: the races were to be
held as scheduled come hail or high
water. This was considered necessary
because Southern Oregon College, a
co-sponsor with Oregon Nordic, was
sending its young racing hotshots, and
the college’s tight itinerary called for
the joint event as planned or indefinite
postponement.
But our weather worries proved
unnecessary. Mamacita Nature, recog-
nizing the importance of our double-
header ski-racing meet obligingly
closed one spigot and opened another,
shutting off the rain and allowing the
sun to smile down on our happy, ac-
tive gathering. (The following day the
interrupted storm resumed.)
The day of the meet Bill left
home real early for Lake of the Woods
in order to make final preparations for
the big event. Claudette, Pearl, and I
showed up later, still early enough for
some warming-up exercise before the
races started at 1 p.m.
As lone representative from our
wee Valley I felt I had an obligation
to compete, and the self-imposed re-
sponsibility goaded me into calling up
any latent reserve forces that might be
lazing about somewhere within, just
in case the going might get real tough.
Although the weather was per-
OF GOVERNMENTS
Food & Friends Menu
FRIDAY – FEB. 17
HOMESTyLE PORk PATTy
W/ gRAVy
MONDAY – FEB. 20
PORCUPINE MEATBALLS
OVER RICE
If you need meals
delivered please call
541-955-8839.
i.V. Wellness resources
Do you have a tendency toward ear wax build-up?
It can cause problems with hearing and may affect your
balance. If you have not had ear surgery or your eardrum
doesn’t have a hole or tube in it, here are some steps to help
you avoid wax build-up.
Soften the wax using an eye-dropper to apply a few drops
of slightly warmed baby oil, mineral oil, glycerin or hydrogen
peroxide to the ear canal twice a day for no more than four to
five days. After a day or two when the wax is softened, use a
rubber-bulb syringe to gently squirt body-temperature water
into your ear canal. Tilt your head and straighten the ear canal
by pulling the outer ear up and back. When finished irrigat-
ing, tip your head to the side to let the water drain out. Gently
dry your outer ear with a towel or hand-held dryer. You may
need to repeat these steps several times.
If the build-up does not improve after a few treatments,
see you doctor. Please note that ear candling- a technique
that involves placing a lit, hollow, con-shaped candle in the
ear is not a safe earwax removal method and shouldn’t be
done. Candling may result in serious injury, such as burns
and eardrum perforation. Using cotton-tipped swabs are also
not recommended as they can harm the ear and pack the wax
in deeper. Mom always said don’t put anything smaller than
your elbow into your ear! This information from the Mayo
Clinic Health Letter, March 2014.
You can contact I.V. Wellness Resources at www.ivwell-
nessresources@gmail.com. Please like our Facebook page by
searching for ivwellnessresources.
Senior BULLeTin
CLOSED fOR HOLIDAy
WEDNESDAY - FEB. 22
doesn’t matter. I feel honored to
have even competed with the win-
ner of first place. He was John Day,
our supreme chief, whose den walls
are covered with national and inter-
national trophies, and who has won
at least one world championship, an
unprecedented endurance event that
took place on a Norway glacier.
Our next ski-racing meet is
scheduled for early March. Between
such events are the less exciting but
more solidly pleasureful ski tours,
where the best that winter has to
offer can be thoroughly enjoyed by
everyone.
And now that the big event of
my life is over, and I have the trophy
I bragged I was going out after, I can
settle back into the comfortable old
rut–and try to regain the lost appetite
that all the excitement scared out of
me.
The race is over, the coveted
trophy on the wall – and my self-
banishment to Singapore indefinitely
postponed.
Senior SPoTLiGHT
Sponsored by
COUNCIL
fect for the races, the snow’s condi-
tion was not exactly ideal, its wetness
demanding painstaking experiments
to find the proper wax or wax combi-
nation to ensure that the skis should
have the best holding quality on the
forceful “kick” that propels the racer
forward in conjunction with his vigor-
ous pole thrust.
My race, the Senior Class, was
to be once around a figure-8-shaped
course, a distance of about 2 miles.
Before the event I had skied around
it once, and made a number of short
runs to keep limbered up.
The wonderful success of the
meet and the enthusiastic acclaim of
visitors and participants alike at the
thrilling enjoyment of the event and
the well-organized manner in which
it was conducted, far exceeded our
greatest expectations.
For me, personally, the event
would have been a screaming suc-
cess if all around me had been chaos
instead of sparkling happiness. I had
my yearned-for trophy to bring back
home. The fact that the engraving
says second place instead of first
HOME SAFETy
EVALUATAIONS
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with a registered nurse
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Call 541-592-6139 for a
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laura@illinois-valley-
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in Cave Junction.
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SEEKING SERVICES
Valley seniors are
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If you would like to
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have references, please
contact Laura Mancuso at
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for rent, we have a couple
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