Birchleggings Club Fall Foliage Hike and Cornhole Classic Wrap-Up

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, October 10, 2024, at beautiful Hyland Park Reserve in Bloomington, Minnesota, the Birchleggings Club had the final event in its inaugural year round of activities. Twelve people attended the Fall Foliage Hike And Cornhole Classic.

Three pits were available for cornhole, and the contestants were “Pitchin’ for Pumpkin Pies”, as six pies were raffled off and another consumed on site. A good time was had by all.

A big thanks to Gus and Julie Virkus for arranging for this fun event!

Stay tuned for next year’s calendar and hope to see you all at the Turkey Birkie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLC Annual Meeting • September 27, 2024 • Double OO Johnson Center

 

The Birchleggings Club will hold their annual business meeting and picnic:

Friday, September 27, 2024

11:00am to 02:00pm 

Samuel C. Johnson Family Outdoor Center at OO Trailhead near Seeley.

 

All BLC members, Birchleggers and Korteloppet 20-year finishers, family and friends are invited to this gathering.

 

The event will begin with a picnic at the Johnson Center with veggie and non-veggie grill items, potato salad, garden salad, loads of condiments and “Birkie Bars” from Bob Britz for a sweet finish. 

Birkie brews and non-alcoholic beverages will be served. This will be a zero-waste event, and participants are encouraged to bring their own picnic utensils and beverage cups as part of our commitment to the values of Birkie Green.

 

Background music will be performed by the BLC Strummers and potential performance by our guest of honor. Following the picnic on the patio, we will move inside the Johnson Center for our Annual Meeting. If you are coming, please register at the link below!

Register for the Meeting Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8UfnsbQ5hdR8_FjJekf82RY6IddQnuHH-OL814rAYkX8S-w/viewform

Agenda Here: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:f3311e8a-8a0c-4ec8-8f36-edb5eb4c2612?mc_cid=f81395cb39&mc_eid=aba22f36c1

If you are not a Member, Join Now at this link: https://runsignup.com/Race/WI/Hayward/BirchleggingsClubMembership?mc_cid=f81395cb39&mc_eid=aba22f36c1

Finally, don't miss reading the September Birchleggings Club Newsletter at this link: https://mailchi.mp/d2e510750d36/birchleggings-club-newsletter-8873778?e=aba22f36c1

 

See You on September 27th, from 11:00am to 02:00pm, at Double OO!

Birchleggings Club Disc Golf and Dinner Wrap-Up

Following the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation Annual meeting on August 10, 2024, with 60 people, Birchleggings president, Paul Thompson, toured the existing disc golf course at Telemark Village, which needs to be re-designed and improved. The move to include a new course is off to a slow start, however, Paul did receive interest and support from Dave Twork, co-owner of Home Base, the on site lodging location on the Telemark Village property.

There is much more to come as the mountain bike and roller ski trails are completed which allows for a new design of the disc golf course, removing safety concerns.

Thanks to Birchlegger Scott Smith for his interest in developing this new addition to the Telemark Village design.

If you are a disc golfer and would like to help with this project, please contact Paul Thompson at paul@coolplanetmn.org

Have you never played this fun sport? If not, here’s a primer on the game of disc golf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Buk1Hn8jM

Birchleggings Club Dakota Trail Bicycle Ride Wrap-Up

A rainy morning turned into a mostly sunny and comfortable day for the 1st Annual Birchleggings Club Dakota Trail Bicycle Ride on August 15, 2024. We had seven riders, with six doing the 57-Mile Wayzata to Lester Prairie Route and back and one rider that did the 38-Mile option from Mound and back. Two riders turned it into a 100-Mile Century ride, by riding to and from Wayzata and Minneapolis. Things were iffy since there was lots of rain the night before the ride, but the clouds opened up, and we had mostly sunshine for the ride.

All riders are now Founders of the Birchleggings Club Dakota Trail Bicycle Ride in the tradition of Tony Wise and the American Birkebeiner Ski Race!

The riders had lunch at the famous Central Cafe at the end of the Dakota Trail in Lester Prairie. "Mary Kate's Bitchin' Kitchen" did not disappoint the riders with her delicious sandwiches on homemade bread!

The photographs are all from the Central Cafe. The owner Mary Kate took the photographs. The one outside, from R to L, include Edward Eroe, Greg Fields, Ed Hasselman, Adam Smith, Julia Virkus, Gus Virkus, and Sophia Beal.

A big thanks to all the riders that have completed several Birkie and / or Korte races and one, Sophia, who now wants to do one of the races in the future, after listening to all of our stories!

Birchleggings Club / Birkie Green Race-Bib Recycling and Landfill Tour Wrap-Up

 

One of the positive efforts of the Birkie Green initiative of the American Birkebeiner has been to source the thousands of race bibs used every year from recycled material. Borah Teamwear produces the bibs in Wisconsin using recycled fiber made from plastic water bottles. Unfortunately, every year after Birkie week concludes, the ABSF is left with a good number of unused race bibs. The Birchleggings Club has taken some of those bibs and crafted them into reusable shopping bags. Some folks have returned their used race bibs so they can be repurposed or recycled, but the Birkie Bib Bags only make a small dent into the number of leftover bibs that would be destined for a landfill.

 

On July 19 the Birchleggings Club collaborated with the ABSF to take the next major step in reducing bib waste by preparing over 2800+ bibs for recycling. In a day-long environmental-action event, volunteers not only ushered the bibs on their way to a new life, but learned what happens to everyday trash when it gets thrown “away.”

 

The day began with a tour of the Republic Services Lake Area Landfill near Sarona, WI, about 45 minutes south of Hayward. Jason Eraquam, Operations Manager of the facility gave the group an overview of the facility, its history and operation, and then guided them around the 300+acre site. While visiting a landfill might not seem very attractive or exciting, Jason’s excellent presentation opened our eyes to the complexity and long-term considerations that go into creating, operating, and maintaining a landfill. Site selection, site preparation, remediation/cleanup of old landfill sections, watershed design and protection, leachate collection and treatment, water monitoring, methane capture and reuse, windblown refuse collection, pest prevention, recycling, restoring the vegetation when done, local road maintenance, educating the public, using new technology, and more go into operating the site beyond just burying trash in the ground. The care that is taken to manage the site responsibly was impressive.

 

After the tour, more volunteers joined the group to “strip the chips” from thousands of Birkie, Korte, and Prince Haakon race bibs. The timing chips and year stickers on the bibs needed to be removed before they would be acceptable for recycling by Terracycle, the company doing the reclamation. The nineteen volunteers completed the work in a few short hours.

 

Some of the bibs were given to Julie Virkus and Nancy Bauer, who created “The Bib Boutique” where they use their sewing and quilting skills to transform the bibs into an array of colorful quilts, mittens, ski bags and apparel. Be sure to look for their creations, as well as Birkie Bib Bags, at the Birchleggings Club booth during next year’s Birkie Expo. The proceeds from the sales are donated to local ski organizations such as Emily Foundation, Spooner Nordic Ski Team, Hayward Nordic Ski Team and Nordic Kids.

 

The Birchleggings Club sends its thanks to Jason Eraquam of Republic Services, Rachel Frydenlund, ABSF Event Logistics Manager, Paul Thompson, BLC President, and the volunteers who made the event a success.

1st Annual Birchleggings Club Golf Classic Highlights

The 1st Annual Birchleggings golf classic was held at Creeks Bend Golf Course in New Prague, MN on July 18, 2024. In addition to supporting the Birkie experience, participants enjoyed a great day of golf on a bluebird morning with temperatures in the high 70s. There were 67 golfers on the course, plus 10 additional persons who did not golf but donated directly to the event. So in effect, we had 77 paid participants. The goal for next year is 100 + golfers! Mark your calendars for next year’s golf scramble scheduled for the third week in July on Thursday, July 17, 2025.

 

Ben Popp, Executive Director of the American Birkebeiner Foundation, joined forces with the two new Birchlegger board members Kim Rudd and Kitty Earl-Torniainen for a fantastic foursome golf squad. Team members discovered that Ben’s second career may be in professional golfing! "It was great to spend the day with a group of amazing, passionate people supporting the lifestyle we all love! Getting people out, enjoying new friendships while raising money for the Birchleggings Club was awesome - the start of a new summer tradition", said Ben after the event.

Around $6,000 was raised by the golf event which will be used to keep improving the Birkie trail system, grooming equipment, bridges, outhouses, skating pond, and the development of Telemark Village.

 

 

Many event participants went home with raffle and silent auction prizes donated by over 35 vendors. Team and individual prizes were awarded to the following golf participants:

 

      The Golf Tournament Championship Team was awarded to the foursome team of Paul Thompson, Ted Johnson, Dan Riukin, and Jim Tenorio.

      

      The 150-yard target course winner was Paul Tate. John Kapsner and Sam Mohs shared the win for the closest to the pin contest. The longest golf putt was awarded to Steve Hughes and the accuracy drive closest to the line was John Canny.

 

The Birchlegger board would like to thank all the volunteers, Birkie Foundation staff especially Louise Droessler, and vendor sponsors for making the 2024 Bircheggings Club Golf Classic a huge success.

 

All the photographs from the event can be seen on the Birchleggings Club Facebook Page. You do not have to be a member of Facebook to view the photos!

 

Special thanks Bob Britz and Jim Haubrich for the overall coordination of the event, Louise Droessler for assisting us with RunSignUp, Gina Fadden for the photographs, and to Kim Rudd for the wrap-up of the event!

Birchleggings Club Summer Solstice Stroll Wrap-Up

 

 

On a soggy solstice morning, the clouds parted just long enough for a few of us to kick off the Birchleggings Club Year Round Activities with the Summer Solstice Stroll on June 20, 2024. The activity was coordinated by Birchleggings Club Board Member, Gus Virkus.

Gus reported that their group hiked for several miles on the trails at Theodore Park in Minneapolis. There are a variety of paths to choose from, ranging from asphalt to multi use single track. It is interesting and nicely shaded. Of course, the obligatory snacks and beverages followed the hike.

Please consider joining us on our next event, July 18, 2024, for the Birchleggings Club Golf Classic. After the golf, there are other activities that you can find on the Birchleggings Club Year Round Activities Page! Sign up today!

Birchleggings Club Year Round Activities!

 

Come join the Birchleggings Club for several Year Round Activities this summer and fall. Keep in touch with your skiing friends while enjoying, Hiking, Golf, Birkie Green Race Bib Recycling, Disc Golf, Bicycling, and Corn Hole. See all the details on our Year Round Activities webpage!

Sign up now and don't miss these special ways of spending time with friends and keeping in shape for the American Birkebeiner Ski Races in 2025!

Jessie Diggins Autographed Bib To Be Auctioned During Birkie Week

At the American Birkebeiner in 2024, the Birchleggings Club (BLC) will offer at silent auction one of the commemorative 50^th Anniversary Birkie bibs autographed by Jessie Diggins. A limited number of bibs were produced and autographed by Jessie for the milestone 50^th Birkie.

Jessie Diggins has autographed specially-prepared Birkie Bibs to help raise funds in support of the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (ABSF). The BLC is fortunate to have obtained one of the bibs. Our thanks go to Ben Popp, Executive Director of the ABSF for providing the BLC with a bib. Proceeds from our auction will go to BLC projects that will benefit the American Birkebeiner and the Birkie Trail.

 

 

 

 

 

Silent Auction Schedule

 

Birchleggings Club Booth at the Birkie Expo

Thursday, February 22 & Friday, February 23, 2024

Hayward High School, Hayward, WI

 

and at the

 

Birchleggings Club Annual Breakfast

Sunday, February 25, 2024, 8:30 am

Steakhouse & Lodge, Hayward, WI

 
Jessie Diggins, X-C Ski Legend

 

Jessie Diggins is the USA’s most-decorated world-class cross-country skier of all time. She is the first US Nordic racer ever to win an Olympic gold medal, obtained in the team sprint with Kikkan Randall, at PyeongChang in 2018. She won individual silver and bronze medals at Beijing in 2022. Her FIS Nordic World Ski Championship record includes four medals from 2013 to 2017. Jessie was the first American to take the top spot in the women’s overall standings of the FIS Cross-Country World Cup for the 2020-21 season. She has been making multiple podium appearances during this 2023-24 World Cup season. She took top honors in the 2008 and 2009 Kortelopet skate races. The Kortelopet wins and coming from her home in Afton, Minnesota make her accomplishments even more heartwarming for Birkie enthusiasts.

 

Jessie was instrumental in helping the BLC raise the funds to purchase for the Birkie trail an all-electric Taiga “Nomad” snowmobile in 2023. She autographed and donated four of her World Cup race bibs and several Birkie and Korte bibs to the BLC for the 2023 auction.

 

In Jessie’s own words:

“As an athlete, following a gas-powered vehicle filming the lead pack is harmful to both my lungs and to the planet. I highly encourage EV snow machines to be used at race venues whenever possible to reduce the breathing issues for the athletes and to cut down emissions.”

2024 Birchleggings Club Breakfast and Awards Meeting

 

The 2024 Birchleggings Club Breakfast and Awards Meeting will be starting at 8:30 am on Sunday, February 25, 2024. It will again be held at the Hayward Steakhouse and Lodge.

New 20, 30, 40, and 50 year Birkie and Korte skiers will be recognized and presented with their Birchleggers awards. New 20 year Birchlegger and Kortelopet skiers will receive a free breakfast, compliments of the Birchleggings Club!

We are asking skiers and guests to please register for the breakfast in advance! We will still accept walk-ins on the morning of the breakfast. Price of the breakfast is $16.

 

The address, telephone number, GPS Coordinates, and website of The Steakhouse & Lodge are:

Steakhouse and Lodge

15860 T Bone Lane

Hayward, WI 54843

715-934-4411

GPS:46.002568, -91.486723

Website: https://www.steakhouseandlodge.com