XC skiing on New Years day

On Jan 1, Chris D and I went cross country skiing.  It was something I kind of wanted to do for a long time as a way of cross training.  Chris is from Florida, and it was his first time on skis.  I don't know how to ski either.  We decided that the Peak to Peak trailhead in Frisco would be a great place to start.  It is mostly double track with gradual ups and downs.   It is mostly up the way out, which means down on the way back to the car.  We first tried a gradual downhill, and we seemed ok with it, as we thought we would test ourselves on progressively larger hills.  Our next test was to find a hill with a turn.  Chris made it after one try, but it took me about 5 times to clear it.  My natural instinct as a mountain biker is to get my body back, but when you do that on skis, you eat it.  Once I got past this, and lowered myself for balancing, I was good.  Eventually, we got to a point where we decided to turn around.  Since neither of us know how to stop on skis, we thought we should leave a fair gap for the decent back to the car.  Chris went first, got to a mound after a short distance, and came to a stop.  Then we both took off at the same time.  After a moment, I was gaining speed quickly.  Next thing I knew, I blew by the mound, and was skiing side by side with Chris on a trail that is about 8 feet wide.  This made both of us a bit nervous, especially since crashing was the story of the day.  I wiped out first, and Chris followed suit so he wouldn't hit me.  It is amazing how something that looks so easy can be pretty tough.  Skiing was fun, and a good workout, and the next trip is right around the corner.