real snow! nothing like the normal east coast ice. most of wednesday and much of thursday this part of new hampshire was getting snowed on. i worked on wednesday and was hoping the whole day that 'all afterschool activities' would not be canceled. the MOC deepfreeze meeting had already been snowed out once and we are scheduled to go this sunday--a gathering was called to finalize food and have students present winter travel tips. i got a little nervous when they announced that student drivers could leave 10 minutes early, but in the end we met.
with the logistics and students pretty well set, i woke thursday to good six inches of fresh powder and decided to go up and check the cabin out. i could install the 'kitchen board' i had cut two years ago and get a good ski in while i was out. as i drove up the turnpike i stopped to say hi to one of my former students, matt, shoveling his drive. i knew he hiked so i asked if he wanted to go up to smarts. he said sure, but his snowshoes were in his buddies truck. i zipped back home and grabbed mine while he finished shoveling and then packed.
we got on the trail about 11:00a, a bit late as i had a 4:00p meeting, but he was young and i had brought him a sled to speed up the descent. we were going to take the ranger trail, the dotted black line that basically follows the drainage until it starts to climb more sharply. the lambert ridge, between the pink highlighting, is the AT trail. either way, the snow was plenty deep, but by switching lead, we were going right along. the only thing that slowed us was the occasional blowdowns we stopped to cut out. if it was bigger than eight inches, we left it and went around. i figured the sledders coming down monday could get over anything we could.
matt dropped his pack off at the old fire road garage to help with our speed. the snow was deep enough to make breaking trail a real chore, even switching off like we were. when we crossed the brook and went into the woods were the climb got steeper, and the snow deeper. we hit a half dozen more blowdowns before the junction with the AT--the red dotted line meets the black one--before the final quarter mile of switchbacks at the really steep parts. at one point my skins didn't hold on an icy rock hump and as i tumbled backwards into the snow i lost a ski and the saw came out of my pocket. when i righted myself and collected gear, i decided to stow the saw in the pack and hope for a clear trail the rest of the way.
i caught back up to matt who was stymied at another ice flow over a boulder. we tried a couple of approaches just to slip back down. finally i heard matt mutter, "i guess i'll have to go down to go up." that worked and i followed. over that spot we ran into a mess of a fallen tree, but managed to get under it. maybe one of the students would like to saw it out on sunday. as we gained the summit cone, the snow laden trees hung lower and lower, and as low as i could bend just gave the snow more of a target down my back. i suppose the shovel and kitchen board strapped on to my pack only helped knock more of it down on me as well. we were almost as snowy as the trees--but we could change at the cabin.
after getting around one last nasty blowdown right below the fire tower, we got to the cabin. when we got around to the porch side, it was freshly painted and had a new door on it. i took some pictures then gave matt the shovel and i took the board inside. before putting it on the little sink, i did change out of my soaked shirt. i also noticed that the holes in the wall and the floor had been patched. students who complained last time about the cold leaking in would be happy. the place looked ship shape compared to some of our visits. we finished our tasks and packed up again. matt took off as i fiddled with my skis. somehow i put them on the wrong feet, but i didn't want to let matt get too far out on his own, so i left them.
that might have been a mistake. as i skied down to find him i kept thinking i should change skis around, but the snow was deep enough that i could make it work--almost. after ripping the my jacket sleeve on a low tree branch making it down the first steep part, i gave in and stripped my skins and changed feet. while i was at it, i buckled my boots tight and clicked down the bindings as well. "ah, that's better." skiing down was back to really fine. a little narrow in some places, but now i was ripping the powder rather than my jacket. what i couldn't believe, the tracks said matt was snowshoeing it the whole way, not sledding. i should catch him fairly soon, even with his big stride.
i got into a sweet set of s-curves where the conifers gave out and the hardwoods opened up. i spotted matt tromping along ahead. as i came up, i asked how it was going, he gave a tired smile and confessed he pretty tired, and was not sledding to keep his hands dry. i could understand that. we got to the garage a bit after that and as he repacked, i kept on. with no skins there was going to be some sidestepping or herringboning to make it uphill.
the fire road out was now clear of trees--except for that one huge trunk at the bottom--and i figured it would be a fairly quick out even with a few uphills. since matt didn't sled the steeper spots, i figured he wouldn't slide any of this section. given that, i sort of poked along, thinking that 'date' i was trying to meet, would wait for me a little past 4:00 if he had to. neither matt nor i kept a watch or phone so we were only guessing it would be close to that time when we got out.
i did get down about 10 minutes before matt made it to the truck about 3:50p. to celebrate, i passed him a cup of hot tea, we packed into the truck, and headed back to canaan. he assured me that despite a sore pelvis, it had been a great trip and he was wicked happy i had stopped and asked. it was mostly all work on the way up but i caught a good picture of matt wearing a smile along with a snow flake at the eye.
we had achieved everything i wanted to: the trail was mostly clear, the porch shoveled off, the kitchen board in place, and we had a great chat as well. as i dropped him off at his drive right after 4:00p, i decided i would stop at the house and see if jeff had waited for me. there was an email with a phone number so i called.
jeff was still at our meeting spot, nursing a beer, and willing to wait for me to get there. what could be better than such an accommodating friend willing to wait--even though this would be the first time i actually met him, at least in the flesh. after such a swell day in the snow, i was counting a lot of blessings!
with the logistics and students pretty well set, i woke thursday to good six inches of fresh powder and decided to go up and check the cabin out. i could install the 'kitchen board' i had cut two years ago and get a good ski in while i was out. as i drove up the turnpike i stopped to say hi to one of my former students, matt, shoveling his drive. i knew he hiked so i asked if he wanted to go up to smarts. he said sure, but his snowshoes were in his buddies truck. i zipped back home and grabbed mine while he finished shoveling and then packed.
we got on the trail about 11:00a, a bit late as i had a 4:00p meeting, but he was young and i had brought him a sled to speed up the descent. we were going to take the ranger trail, the dotted black line that basically follows the drainage until it starts to climb more sharply. the lambert ridge, between the pink highlighting, is the AT trail. either way, the snow was plenty deep, but by switching lead, we were going right along. the only thing that slowed us was the occasional blowdowns we stopped to cut out. if it was bigger than eight inches, we left it and went around. i figured the sledders coming down monday could get over anything we could.
matt dropped his pack off at the old fire road garage to help with our speed. the snow was deep enough to make breaking trail a real chore, even switching off like we were. when we crossed the brook and went into the woods were the climb got steeper, and the snow deeper. we hit a half dozen more blowdowns before the junction with the AT--the red dotted line meets the black one--before the final quarter mile of switchbacks at the really steep parts. at one point my skins didn't hold on an icy rock hump and as i tumbled backwards into the snow i lost a ski and the saw came out of my pocket. when i righted myself and collected gear, i decided to stow the saw in the pack and hope for a clear trail the rest of the way.
i caught back up to matt who was stymied at another ice flow over a boulder. we tried a couple of approaches just to slip back down. finally i heard matt mutter, "i guess i'll have to go down to go up." that worked and i followed. over that spot we ran into a mess of a fallen tree, but managed to get under it. maybe one of the students would like to saw it out on sunday. as we gained the summit cone, the snow laden trees hung lower and lower, and as low as i could bend just gave the snow more of a target down my back. i suppose the shovel and kitchen board strapped on to my pack only helped knock more of it down on me as well. we were almost as snowy as the trees--but we could change at the cabin.
after getting around one last nasty blowdown right below the fire tower, we got to the cabin. when we got around to the porch side, it was freshly painted and had a new door on it. i took some pictures then gave matt the shovel and i took the board inside. before putting it on the little sink, i did change out of my soaked shirt. i also noticed that the holes in the wall and the floor had been patched. students who complained last time about the cold leaking in would be happy. the place looked ship shape compared to some of our visits. we finished our tasks and packed up again. matt took off as i fiddled with my skis. somehow i put them on the wrong feet, but i didn't want to let matt get too far out on his own, so i left them.
that might have been a mistake. as i skied down to find him i kept thinking i should change skis around, but the snow was deep enough that i could make it work--almost. after ripping the my jacket sleeve on a low tree branch making it down the first steep part, i gave in and stripped my skins and changed feet. while i was at it, i buckled my boots tight and clicked down the bindings as well. "ah, that's better." skiing down was back to really fine. a little narrow in some places, but now i was ripping the powder rather than my jacket. what i couldn't believe, the tracks said matt was snowshoeing it the whole way, not sledding. i should catch him fairly soon, even with his big stride.
i got into a sweet set of s-curves where the conifers gave out and the hardwoods opened up. i spotted matt tromping along ahead. as i came up, i asked how it was going, he gave a tired smile and confessed he pretty tired, and was not sledding to keep his hands dry. i could understand that. we got to the garage a bit after that and as he repacked, i kept on. with no skins there was going to be some sidestepping or herringboning to make it uphill.
the fire road out was now clear of trees--except for that one huge trunk at the bottom--and i figured it would be a fairly quick out even with a few uphills. since matt didn't sled the steeper spots, i figured he wouldn't slide any of this section. given that, i sort of poked along, thinking that 'date' i was trying to meet, would wait for me a little past 4:00 if he had to. neither matt nor i kept a watch or phone so we were only guessing it would be close to that time when we got out.
i did get down about 10 minutes before matt made it to the truck about 3:50p. to celebrate, i passed him a cup of hot tea, we packed into the truck, and headed back to canaan. he assured me that despite a sore pelvis, it had been a great trip and he was wicked happy i had stopped and asked. it was mostly all work on the way up but i caught a good picture of matt wearing a smile along with a snow flake at the eye.
we had achieved everything i wanted to: the trail was mostly clear, the porch shoveled off, the kitchen board in place, and we had a great chat as well. as i dropped him off at his drive right after 4:00p, i decided i would stop at the house and see if jeff had waited for me. there was an email with a phone number so i called.
jeff was still at our meeting spot, nursing a beer, and willing to wait for me to get there. what could be better than such an accommodating friend willing to wait--even though this would be the first time i actually met him, at least in the flesh. after such a swell day in the snow, i was counting a lot of blessings!
No comments:
Post a Comment