We would like to thank everyone who participated in the Kawartha Nordic photo competition this season.  It was not an easy decision to make with all the lovely submissions The winning photos will be framed and displayed in the Woodfine Lodge.

This will be a yearly challenge at Kawartha Nordic, so get your cameras ready for next season!!

Congatulations to...

Kyler Amsbury 1st place for the Skiing category

Ben Taylor 1st place for the Nature category

Derek Abrams 1st place for the Family category

Today, the Peterborough Health Region (Peterborough County) moved into a Red-Control Zone as part of Ontario's COVID Response Framework.

This new level brings a few additional restrictions and guidelines on top of those already in place and practiced as part of Kawartha Nordic's overall COVID Safety Plan.

• KN must collect contact information and COVID screening responses from all employees, volunteers, and visitors, unless they are on-site only to exercise on their own and won't be interacting with KN staff or program groups. This information will be kept on file by KN, and released to Peterborough Public Health upon their request.
• Outdoor social gatherings and organized events are limited to 25 people, and must adhere to physical distancing and mask guidelines.
• Outdoor instructional groups are limited to 25 people total across all groups on the KN premises at the same time.
• Team sports, and any games or sports that would likely result in individuals coming within 2m of each other are not permitted.

Please use the new KN COVID-19 Screening Tool each day before you visit Kawartha Nordic.

If you are from a more restrictive zone, please respect our staff, volunteers, and other visitors by abiding by the Province's travel expectations as follows.

The Reopening Ontario plan gives the following explicit advice about travel at this time:

"Travel between regions will greatly increase the potential for spikes in community spread and undo all the progress we have made.

You should avoid travelling between zones (for example, from Grey-Lockdown to any other zone, Red-Control to Orange-Restrict or Yellow-Protect to Green-Prevent), except for essential reasons."

While we acknowledge that exercise is considered an essential reason for travel, for regions still under the Lock-down and Stay-at-Home order the Province states:

"You should not travel outside your region or the province unless absolutely necessary."

We have a duty to protect our staff and volunteers from exposure, so please

• Do not visit Kawartha Nordic from any region in a Lock-down or Stay-at-Home order for any reason
• Do not visit Kawartha Nordic from any more restrictive zone except for essential exercise, and only if you won't be interacting with others outside your own household

We are gearing up for a great Family Day weekend of fun at Kawartha Nordic! This holiday means so much to us, as bringing families together for quality time is one of the pillars of our organization.

Excitement aside, we want to ensure the safety of all of our visitors at KN, and ask that all vistors remind themselves of our COVID Safety Plan.

In particular, please note that under the Provincial stay-at-home Order still in effect in our region, the Province has stated

"You should not travel outside your region or the province unless absolutely necessary."

For the safety of all of us at Kawartha Nordic and yourselves we ask that you please not travel from outside of your region to visit Kawartha Nordic.

Although we would love to see and welcome everyone, this is the only way we can ensure safety for all and do our part in controlling this pandemic.

We are also expecting a good turnout of skiers this weekend.

• Please consider skiing either in the early morning or late afternoon to avoid the busy mid-day times.
• In the instance that our parking lot is completely full, we will unfortunately be forced to start turning people away.
• We will be posting our capacity and potential closure on our social media channels so please check Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram before visiting this weekend.
• We will also have parking attendants on site to guide vehicles to spots and ensure there are no large gaps between cars.
• In addition, under no circumstance should any visitor park on the highway, as it is extremely dangerous for pedestrians and other cars.

Although we will do our best so that everyone can get a chance to hit the trails, it wouldn't hurt to come with a backup plan, just in case!

This year, KN is encouraging guests and members to participate in our photo competition for a chance to have your photo framed and hung up on the wall in the Woodfine Lodge.

The Canadian Ski Marathon is coming to Kawartha Nordic this year! Kawartha Nordic has a special connection to the Canadian Ski Marathon and this year it will be skied (at least in part) on our own trails.

It was 1969 when Bill Lech, Herb Ferguson, Al Daniels and Marjorie Shephard attended the Canadian Ski Marathon in western Quebec and returned to Peterborough so enthused with the idea of hosting a similar ski tour in the Kawarthas. From that trip, and many volunteer efforts over the subsequent years to clear a trail from Apsley to Buckhorn, the Kawartha Ski Tour was born. Of course the Kawartha Ski Tour would evolve into Kawartha Nordic Ski Club and the wonderful community we enjoy today.

Kawartha Nordic Canadian Ski Patrol Members welcome you to the 2021 Season!

What a year this has been. We now have some snow and the facility is open for us to use.

Whether you are a veteran club member, a first timer, a displaced downhiller revisiting the sport, or are someone dusting off some skis that haven't seen snow in years, here are a few things to help you stay safe and have a good time on the trails in this season.

Count your kilometres for prizes!

Cross-country Ski Ontario (XCSO) has challenged all Ontario clubs and club members to ski as many kilometers as they can this season.

They are offering prizes for the COVID Kilometre Challenge as follows:

• Top 3 Male & Female Individuals with the most kilometres skied 1 Jan to 31 Mar 2021
• Top 3 Clubs with the most kilometres skied per skier registered for the challenge
• Top Club with greatest number of total accumulated kilometres
• plus, some surprise additional prizes along the way

To participate (or to just see what everyone else is skiing), open the XCSO COVID Kilometre Challenge Google Sheet and add your name and kilometres to the Kawartha tab. You can add your kilometres every day, or just put them all in on 31 Mar 2021 before 8:31pm.

Additional details are available from XCSO.