Sometimes there is no winter sport that my wife and I enjoy more than cross-country skiing. The parallel grooves in the snow serve as a guide for skiing. If you’re looking to try a new location, consider the Round Valley Trail System near Park City, Utah, which features 15 miles of groomed trails over hilly terrain at an elevation of approximately 7,200 feet.
On our first break, we stayed on the Round Valley Express Trail. On the way we passed hikers, joggers, dog walkers, snow bikers or fat bikers and skinny skiers who whizzed past us. There are seven starting points. We parked in Meadow Cove off Highway 40, which runs south on I-80 toward Heber City. The other six trailheads are North Round, Highland, Old Ranch, PC Hill, Quinns, where the Park City ice rink is located, and Prospector Trailhead. Maps are available online to show that green trails are beginner trails, blue trails are middle trails, and black trails, like the Barrel Roll Trail, are difficult trails. Our trail was moderate.
The variety of trails takes you to over 30 trails such as Rambler, Nowhere Elks, Somewhere Elks, Porcuclimb, La Dea Duh, Land of Oz, Fastpitch, Crooked Mile, Tin Man, Backslide, Silver Quinn and Two Pines. If you meet other skiers walking towards you there is no problem with right of way. When you see the other skier first, step out of the wavy parallel grooves to let them pass. When we went skiing in Round Valley recently, it was 15 degrees above zero, with falling snow and strong winds. Even so, the beauty of the area calls me back to learn more. It’s a slow climb from the Cove Trailhead to the Round Valley Express, but up in the distance are the ski slopes.
When I was skiing last Saturday I realized that life has grooves that make a huge difference. I take risks in life, but on skis I welcome groomed trails with grooves that keep me on the trail. When I think of grooves that are welcome, I think of going home after work and going to my wife’s home. This is a groomed trail.
Going to work in the morning is a groomed path. Visiting people who are members and friends of our Church is a well-kept way. Skiing at White Pine Ski Resort above Fremont Lake and Pinedale is a groomed trail that I enjoy taking. Fishing in the Flaming Gorge or hunting in southwest Wyoming are groomed trails that I love.
Even so, sometimes we all pass a groomed trail that we haven’t been on yet and he calls us. We pass paths similar to Round Valley paths such as High Side, Kari, Middle-earth, Happy Gilmor, Lost Prospector, Fairway Hills, Matt’s Flat or Seventy 101, and we deviate from our usual grooved path. That can be fun.
On our trip to Heber City and Provo, Utah, we stepped off the normal, grooved trail and had lunch at the Spin Café in Heber City. The barbeque beef soup was outstanding. Breakfast at Chick’s Café was a delight. We got out of the normal groove and spent the night in Heber City at the Swiss Alps Inn.
Maybe we all get caught up in the movies we watch, books we read, or radio stations we enjoy. Wisdom helps us know whether our route to Five Guys, Burgers and Fries, or the route to the Chuck-a-Rama buffet are routes that we would like to add to our repertoire. Sometimes when we watch a movie with good reviews we get out of our normal parallel groove pattern, but at moments in the story we hear things that don’t welcome us to stay on the path. It can be repeated to take the name of the Lord in vain or vulgarly or in explicit scenes. Then we need to know how to get out of our new groove and turn around to get back on the comfortable Round Valley Express.
We recently went to a restaurant in Rock Springs that had exceptionally good food, but the language of families near us received an R rating. The taste of the food becomes secondary to the language that surrounds the table at which we are seated. Soon the ambience of the food can be lost if one is an unwilling audience for a language worse than the gutter language.
These are thoughts I had on my last Round Valley ski adventure. I also started planning to follow my parallel, grooved path all the way to our garden in our back yard for seed planting soon. It’s already March.
Thank you for taking a virtual ski slope with you. May this short ski tour also give you food for thought. Is the groovy tour you are on one that Jesus can accompany you on, or your wife or family?
Richard Carlson is the pastor of the Rock Springs Evangelical Free Church. Of his more than 53 years of service, he has done pastor work on site for the past 44 years.
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