These kids have figured out how to have fun outside on a cold February day in the midst of the (sigh) COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead of wasting time at a computer, phone or TV screen, kids ages 4 to 14 have been hitting the cross-country skiing trails to get fresh air and exercise, and learn an adventurous lifelong skill.

“The whole idea behind it is to get parents and kids and families outdoors in the wintertime, to do something that’s a winter outdoor activity,” Jeff Blumenthal said on Sunday. “It’s really to get kids outdoors, doing something, learn a new sport. It’s something that a lot of kids haven’t had the opportunity to do.”

Blumenthal is the president of the Thunder Bay Trails Association, and the director of the TBTA Youth Cross Country Ski Club.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley James Mitterling helps his son Connor, 5, suit up in boots to go cross-country skiing on Sunday afternoon. Pictured above are all the skis lined up on racks, ready for use.

“This is the sixth year of the program,” Blumenthal said on Sunday afternoon, surrounded by parents suiting their kids up to get out on the trails. “We started out with a grant from the Alpena County Youth and Recreation Fund. Six years ago, we wrote a grant … to rent the skis, we did that for two years, and then the third year, I ran it without the grant to see if there was going to be interest — there was. And then, the fourth year, I wrote a grant so that we could buy the equipment outright, and so we bought all the equipment, and now the Thunder Bay Trails Association owns it.”

He said about 45 kids signed up for the cross-country ski club this year.

“Sometimes they all show up, sometimes they don’t,” he said. “It depends on the weather.”

Many of them did show up this past Sunday, as it was around 30 degrees and not windy at all.

“We could use some more fresh snow, because the track right now is very hard-pack, and it’s icy,” Blumenthal noted.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Thunder Bay Trails Association Volunteer Gary Irving, TBTA President Jeff Blumenthal, and TBTA Volunteer Don La Barre pose on Sunday afternoon at the Alpena Golf Course Cross Country Ski Trail.

The group meets at the Alpena Golf Course Cross Country Ski Trail (corner of Genschaw Road and Dow Drive) or Norway Ridge Pathway, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Sundays.

“The Thunder Bay Trails Association has been grooming this,” Blumenthal said of the golf course trail. “Fortunately, the Alpena Golf Club allows us to do this, and we’ve been grooming here for, probably, the better part of ten-plus years. So, a lot of the locals know about it. They come here to ski after work, or they ski on the weekends. It gets quite a bit of use.”

The golf course trail is 2.5 miles long, with some rolling hills to allow for a variety of skill levels.

“It’s very easy, a good place for beginners to go,” Blumenthal said. “We groom it for both cross-country skate skiing, for freestyle, and then, classic skiing with a track. There are a few little hills, but overall, it’s a good place for beginners.”

All the kids who were interviewed on Sunday said going down the hills was their favorite part of the course.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Aaron Hubert, left, and his son Quentin Hubert, 12, right, enjoy cross-country skiing on Sunday afternoon.

Maizey Wirgau, 8, was about to go skiing for the second time on Sunday, with her mom, Ashley Wirgau.

“It’s fun, except for the last time I did it, I didn’t bring the right pair of socks, so my feet got really cold,” Maizey Wirgau said, adding that she enjoys going down the hills. “It goes, like, really fast.”

Emma McNamara, 8, agreed.

“I think the hills are fun, because you go down fast,” she said. “I’m probably going to keep doing it, maybe.”

Her mom, Jennifer McNamara said Emma had so much fun two weeks prior that she wanted to get her own equipment.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Above, Ashley Wirgau follows her 8-year-old daughter Maizey Wirgau on skis on Sunday.

“The nice thing is that some kids are so excited about it,” Blumenthal said, that they end up asking their parents for their own set of skis.

Quentin Hubert, 12, has enjoyed skiing with his dad, Aaron Hubert, for the past two years.

“I like the hills,” he said. “Even though I crash almost every time.”

“It’s a lot harder than it looks,” Aaron Hubert said. “He did good.”

“I’m getting fresh air, and it’s good for me, I know that,” his son said.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Jeff Blumenthal and Don La Barre chat behind the staging area.

Feb. 20 is the last day for the season. The five-week program is $20 for an individual or $40 for the family. There is no cost for those who own their equipment. For more information, visit thunderbaytrails.org.

Blumenthal started the youth ski club. If you ask him, he’ll humbly state that it’s a great sport for kids and adults alike. But if you ask his mother, Sandy Blumenthal, she’ll tell you the rest of the story.

“He did a lot of races in high school,” Sandy Blumenthal said of her son. “Cross-country skiing was his thing … He got a scholarship for cross-country skiing in Idaho.”

She said he did the college Olympics and was the only American to get a gold medal.

“He went to Alaska, Lake Placid, he was traveling with the team, so he did really well with that,” Sandy Blumenthal said on Sunday.

She said he was eventually injured in a race in Boyne.

“His knee went backwards,” she said, adding that he now has titanium pins in it. “So, he can still do this,” she said, gesturing toward the cross-country course, “but not at the level he was doing. So, that was 27 years ago.”

She added that she was the first one in the family to get skis.

“Then, when our kids were small, we got them all into skiing,” she said of herself and her husband. “It’s Jeff’s passion. I’m really, really proud of him.”

Cross-country skiing is good for your whole body as well as your mind.

“You’re using your whole body,” Jeff Blumenthal said. “You’re using your arms, you’re using your legs, there’s a lot of balance involved, cardio, a lot of cardio. If you get an opportunity to watch the Olympics, there’s a lot of cross-country skiing. We’ve got some really good Americans. Jessie Diggins is one to watch, she won a gold medal in the last Olympics.”

This program is sponsored by The Thunder Bay Trails Association, and Alpena County Youth and Recreation Grant Funds.

“We have a lot of Thunder Bay Trails Association volunteers that go out with the kids,” Jeff Blumenthal said. “We have a very active group of volunteers, which is good, because there’s no way we could pull all this off on our own.”

Volunteer Don La Barre credits the Blumenthal family for all their hard work making the ski club happen.

“The Blumenthal family is really the reason this exists,” he said of the ski club. “We volunteers just show up and help out.”

He added that Jeff Blumenthal “is awesome, and we’re very fortunate to have him.”

La Barre and his wife Anne Gentry were skiing with the kids on Sunday.

“We’re trying to get them to learn what it means to be up in northern Michigan and ways to take advantage of all the different types of weather,” La Barre said. “When we get snow, we get excited.”

Jeff Blumenthal has been skiing since he was 7 or 8 years old.

“It’s a great sport,” he said. “It’s fun … It beats sitting inside, watching TV in the winter.”

In addition to Norway Ridge and the Alpena Golf Club, La Barre said another great cross-country skiing spot is Chippewa Hills. And he said the “Holy Grail” of ski spots is Black Mountain, south of Cheboygan.

“There’s a whole cross country skiing culture up here,” La Barre added. “It’s a nice community. I’ve never met a grumpy skier yet.”

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