First long roller ski of the season

I wanted to do a long roller ski this weekend and didn't want to go alone. It seems like it's been so long since I've trained with a group and was missing it. So I put out some feelers to see if anyone would join me. I got some bites from Mel and Dave and we cajoled Brent and Michele to join us when we saw them at practice on Thursday. Then Kevin decided to bag his mountain bike race and joined us too so we had a nice crew. We had agreed to go on the Gateway Trail for an easy ski, but little did we know that there was an MS sponsored bike ride on the trail that day and about 2500 riders were out. We weren't sure how it would go with all those riders, but we were there and so we braved the crowd. It wasn't too bad going out since most of the riders were fast and experienced and had no trouble going around us. Plus they could see us coming for a ways so they had time to get in line. It was a little shakier coming back. The riders at the back of the crowd were less experienced, had difficulty maneuvering quickly, and were more likely to be riding side-by-side. The fact that we were going in opposite directions now didn't help either since we came upon them with less warning. I was leading and could see the fear in many faces as they struggled to maneuver back to their side of the trail. There was only one mishap when a large group passed and some slowed to quickly for others. No one hit the ground, but it was close. Over all it turned out to be a fine ski on a fine morning. I'm looking forward to many more to come.