My sweetheart Marilyn and I with our EasternSlopes.com Publisher David and correspondent Susan Marean Shedd got out on cross-country skis for the first time this year last Sunday, and we (or, at least, I) made just about every mistake in planning we (I) possibly could. But we still had a wonderful time.

Of course we did do some things right. First was getting outdoors and onto cross-country skis. That’s always a good decision.

Second was our location. We were in Maine for the weekend, and chose to do our first cross-country outing on the beautifully groomed, golf-course-smooth trails at the Bethel Inn. What a lovely setting, on the edge of a charming village with views across the Androscoggin River valley to the mountains of Western Maine!

Now for the comedy of (my) errors:

We were in Maine to help celebrate the 50th Birthday of Sunday River in Newry. They had a lot of snow and the atmosphere was festive, to say the least. We’d hammered the slopes–and I do mean hammered. Our legs were totally useless jelly by the time we quit. Even with a good night’s sleep, some of us (I)  hadn’t fully recovered.

We tried to compensate by taking a leisurely Sunday morning to sleep in, clear out of our slopeside condo, and eat a big breakfast at the Crossroads Diner in Bethel. It was after 10 when we finally got to the Bethel Inn’s Nordic Ski Center, and 10:30 before we got our rental gear on. They have excellent skis and boots so the gear wasn’t the problem.

The problem was, none of us had really planned on going cross-country skiing and none of us had the right socks, the right clothes, or the right hats and gloves for it. So we pieced together the best stuff we could from what we had on hand.

We all had mid-weight long underwear and downhill ski pants—not ideal for cross-country skiing but not bad either.  We also had zip-neck long underwear tops and light fleeces. Marilyn and Susan wore their warm puffy jackets, David had a Windbloc fleece jacket, I tried to get by with just a Windbloc fleece vest. Dumb idea #1.

Another problem: collectively we only scrounge up three hats. I went without. Dumb idea #2.  And because I planned to shoot photographs, I wore very light gloves which allow me to use a camera easily. Dumb idea #3.

Normally, what we had on would have been totally adequate. Cross country skiing is fabulous exercise and, usually, your problem is staying cool, not  warm.

But this  particular morning was COLD and the wind, quiet when we arrived, was howling when we left. I tried to tough it out. I was frozen–even when I skied hard enough that I should have been sweating. Stopping to shoot photos made it even worse. By the time we completed our circuit and got back to the Nordic Center, I was too cold to get more clothes and go back out.

Come to think of it, nobody else protested when I said I was quitting.

Besides, cross country skiing uses different muscles, and I could already feel mine. Nobody ever said you had to stay out a whole day to have fun—especially not your first day of the season.

Next time we (I) head out we’ll (I’ll) be better prepared—I’ve already made all my rookie mistakes for the season.