Erkki Harju says "Ski" in Two Harbors

 

In twenty years of skiing on the North Shore's groomed trails, I've seen a lot of signs with basically the same message: Please don't walk on the groomed ski trail. I even remember the Nordic ski coach back in high school pleading with students in a school assembly to stay off the ski tracks around the athletic fields. But this sign, which I found yesterday at the Erkki Harju ski trail in Two Harbors, is by far the goofiest and maybe the most effective I've seen. 

No, that is not Erkki Harju himself with the shovels and the drawl. According to my son, that's Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons, a vaguely Scottish lip-reader. 


Of course, as a former poodle-walker myself, I found the message a little personal. 


Here's the whole sign: 

I really hope that last apostrophe is a typo and that they have more than one volunteer. These are lovely trails and there has to be a good group in town taking care of them. Although they wind through and around a golf course, the trails are mostly in the woods, so it was more like skiing through a forested glade than along a fairway.

To check it out for yourself, turn off Highway 61 onto County Road 2 at the eastern edge of Two Harbors, and drive just 0.7 miles north to the parking lot on the right. Just be sure ya ski and not walk on the trails. Especially if ya got a poodle.