f you are in Northern Finland around June and someone asks you this definitely go run and hide.divbr //divdivI started skiing at the tender age of 21 while I a was attending St Lawrence University in Canton, NY. It is a great small liberal arts college located in northern NY State with a Division I ski team./divdivI only skied there 1 year then withdrew in the spring in order to focus my efforts on becoming an Olympic skier. /divdivThat early summer destiny took me to a small Country in Northern Europe, Finland. Once in Finland after some time in southern Finland I ended up in Rovaniemi. It was there I found a Biathlon Coach, and had the opportunity to train and live with some really extraordinary people. /divdivbr //divdivOne day a very good Finnish skier, Eero asked me I would go for some canoe training in the early evening. I of course said yes. I borrowed a friend’s car and met Eero and his Wife at the designated time. You have to take into account that at this time in his life Eero did not speak english fluently or I Finnish. I got into their car and we proceeded to drive approximately 1 1/2 hours to a cottage on a hill above a scenic lake. There we had a snack then went down to a boathouse got into a canoe and started to paddle. We only paddled for a little bit and all of a sudden we were at a boat launch. His Wife was waiting for us we got out of the canoe and proceeded to put it onto his car got into the car and started to drive for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours. We arrived at a boat launch on an obscure river in Northern Finland with mosquiito’s as large as birds. It was around 10 pm also. Still light since it was around midsummer. It was light 24 hours a day. Great if you want to train three times a day with a nap in between each training./divdivbr //divdivThen Eero and I got into the canoe and started paddling down this river. After over 2 hours of paddling we stopped and Eero got a snack out and we were sitting on the riverbank eating and drinking for a short time and I said that I will not return the car to my friend at
