From Stockholm to Mora and Orsa

Today we drove up to Mora to pick our bibs up and check everything out! There wasn’t much snow on the drive north even in the forests of birch and fir trees. Finally about 80 kms. South of Mora there was snow on the ground and on the hillsides! It’s a beehive of activity-so amazing to be a part of such an incredible event. We picked up our race kit and we’re able to get seeded according to our Gatineau Loppet results-phew! Ross is in the 4^th wave and I am in the 7^th. After a little shopping at the Trade fair we drove up to our Hotel at Orsa which is only about 30 minutes from Mora. We have a very cosy room with a private bathroom luckily, at Trunna Vandrarhem Hostel and Conference center where it just so happens that 8 other Canadians from Chelsea Quebec are staying! It’s a small world. We are here for 5 nights.

Once we got unpacked we quickly drove about 20 minutes north to the “Orsa Gronklitt Ski Center” where they have about 300 kms of groomed trails for both classic and skate. We got in a 15 km ski on the icy trails but it was beautiful! Great to be on skis again! Later we went into Orsa for dinner where there aren’t too many “Restaurangs”. We ended up at the Acropolis which turned out, despite it’s decor to have very good fresh food so we made a reservation for Saturday night dinner at 5 pm!! It’ll be an early night on Saturday as we are having the 3 am breakfast at the main house before we board the 4 am bus to Salen (the start).