Meeting Norwegian great Ulvang prompted book By Joe Blenkle/Sacramento
Sports News Editor
Kevin Hayes (left) with Norwegian XC ski great Vegard Ulvang.
(Kevin Hayes is a lawyer by trade, but his interest in cross country skiing prompted him to write KICKLAND, a fictional adventure of an aging Olympic skier trying to make a comeback. Kevin granted us an interview from his home in Michigan to talk more about KICKLAND and his passion for XC skiing.) How did you get interested in cross country skiing?
Back in 1977 I accepted a post-collegiate job which allowed me to live in a constant, but functionally, impoverished condition in southern California.
After a year or so, it had become manifestly apparent that I was not going to become another Golden State success story. So, although from childhood on I had thoroughly detested the winter cold, I made the anomalous decision to return to my native Michigan.
One evening during a huge snowstorm, I chanced upon a girl cross country skiing down the middle of a road in my hometown.
Other than watching Bill Koch win a silver medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics on television, I had never seen anyone do that. It looked pretty cool, and I soon discovered that it was the perfect remedy for my hatred of winter...well, at the very least it was on a par with being stuck each day in a smoggy 10 mile traffic jam on I-5 on the way to work in Garden Grove trying to sell life insurance to people who would rather be stuck in 10 mile long traffic jams.
Kevin Hayes
How did the idea for Kickland come up?
At that time cross country skiing became a real trendy thing, especially for young people here in the Midwest.
Not very many trails were groomed in those days, and we depended upon each other to make the tracks.
In the late 70s and early 80s everyone seemed to be going out and partying on the trails - and I always loved a party, that’s for sure!
There is no doubt that the whole thing was part of a blue-jeaned baby-boomer fueled phenomenon.
As time passed and the baby boomers started families and what not, the crowds began to thin. More and more of those type of skiers faded from the scene.
As the numbers dwindled, machine groomed trails became the norm and the Levi’d masses were supplanted by today’s lycra-clad skaters.
It is still a great recreational activity, but sometimes I’m nostalgic for it’s bohemian origins.
With the notable exception of the fairer sex, an argument could be made that the changeover to lycra, and ski apparel like it, was the beginning of the end of our sports popularity - at least as far as men are concerned.
Ninety-five percent of men, including 100 percent of us over 40-years-old, should never be seen wearing anything skin tight, and certainly not in public.
This fashion faux-pas is just not the style suited for the general population.
I wrote Kickland with the intent to try to bridge these two differing eras in North American XC skiing.
For the vast majority of my skiing years I was purely a recreational skier. At age 39, I entered a 50 km marathon and finished last in my age group, but I caught the racing bug for a time.
In a couple of races since then I’ve done pretty well, but I am not by any means a competitive skier.
I prefer the classical diagonal stride technique, and I like venues that are oriented to nature, not necessarily to racing.
I’ve not skied out west, but I am positive I would love to ski Royal Gorge in your neck of the woods.
Here in the Midwest there are many nice places, but the place I can be found most often is in my own backyard. I own 15 acres of wooded land and it is very convenient to slip out the back door before or after work for an hour or so of easy skiing.
As far as I am concerned, it is always best to adventure and find new trails, but one of the very best around here is Stokely Creek in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Northern Michigan has dozens of worthy escapes. What kind of research did you have to do for the book? Or was it just something that came from within?
I guess you could say that the idea to write Kickland originated at the 1995 Nordic World Championships in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It was great to see world class racers so close at hand. The sparse North American attendance at the Champ-ionships was a disappointment to those European skiers who are used to seeing tens of thousands of their countrymen brave the elements to watch these contests, but those few of us who did go were able to see them only a meter away from many different perspectives along the course.
It provided almost all of the material I needed to give a true representation of what the world’s best conditioned athletes suffer when pitted against one another. I am a fan of many sports, but nothing is even remotely near exacting as XC racing. Anyhow, one evening I had a kind of mystical cathartic epiphany while skiing, culminating in the belief that I should write a novel about this sport, and to write it in such a way that it should be made into a film.
I guess I am still waiting for someone in Hollywood to have that same cathartic epiphany. The fictional story is a kind of spiritual pilgrimage as well as a cross country journey, especially for characters Tim Keagan, who seeks personal redemption, and for Cane Paulson, Jr., whose nihilistic lifestyle takes him to the brink of suicidal ruin.
Undoubtedly, my own Catholic background is ostensibly evident throughout the presentation of the story, as is the fact that I am an assistant prosecuting attorney in real life. But I think it would be a mistake to interpret the book as advancing any particular dogma, or to be seen as true reflection of our judicial system.
Remember, it was written just after the OJ debacle, and I admit I was a bit miffed with Ito, et al. It is meant to be spiritually, legally, and athletically entertaining in a fictional way. Anyhow, like the sport itself, all creeds are welcome in Kickland. My one desire is to take its readers - whether or not they happen to ski - to a Winter Olympic Games, lock them into the racer’s bindings and to put them through a race, so realistically that they feel that they are skiing in it themselves - so that they may feel the pain and the exhilaration of this great and underappreciated sport. Any interesting stories to tell about your XC experiences?
My most interesting XC story is also related to Kickland and it involves meeting the great Norwegian Olympic XC star Vegard Ulvang. I had driven nearly 750 miles to watch the great Vegard Ulvang race in the much anticipated rematch between Italy and Norway in the men's 4x10 km relay at the 1995 Nordic World Championships at Thunder Bay, Ontario. I guess I have always felt a kind of kinship with him, because like Vegard, I also had a brother die in tragic circumstances.
Anyhow, as I was leaving the stadium, disappointed that he had scratched himself from the line-up, and certain that I would never meet or ever see the Nordic legend race, I was totally surprised to see him walking all alone, boarding the athlete’s shuttle bus. Knowing I would probably never again have the chance, I approached the driver and asked if Vegard Ulvang was on the bus. She threw her head back and shouted in a gruff voice, "Is there a Vegard Ulvang in here!? Someone’s looking for you!"
Here I was in Canada, and a bus driver is screaming - and not too respectfully - at the heroic Norwegian warrior to come out to speak to a total stranger!
A few seconds later, he stepped from the bus and politely chatted with me. We had a picture taken, too.
Anyhow, he confirmed for me why cross country skiing is such a great sport. It is the people. That episode solidified my decision to write this book. It is also why it is written in memory of my brother Garret, and of Ketil Ulvang.
