and two more tours! i went to work on friday, to rest up from the last three days and restore some energy for a noah and eben appearance the next. it was a good choice as, my legs got worked tromping up and down the stairs a half-dozen times--before i started detouring on the handicap ramp inside, or the bus access road outside. i did manage to avoid the elevator in an effort to stay tuned for saturday.
i also managed to wait until after 8:00 to call over to the pendletons' saturday morning. skip said he would pick me up around 9:00-ish on the way to la salette--again. everyday since the storm it had gotten a little bit clearer, and a little bit warmer. saturday was a long sleeve undershirt over a tshirt kind of day. i skied the whole tour with light gloves and a ball cap for hand and head protection, but never bothered to put a jacket on.
of course you don't really need a jacket when going up hill and we were doing that more than half the time. skip wanted to go back to the narrow woods section on the big loop and then cut over to the glades from the height of land between the potato field and the little sherburne. i was good with that as i would only have to put skins back on once--take them off twice. we set off up the lower hayfield and very shortly noah, eben, and linda, decided to put their skins on as the scales were not really 'cutting it'. while they were busy i scooted over to one of the stations of the cross at the catholic shrine. i didn't stay long as jesus did not look very comfy.
everybody with skins on, we set a comfy pace up the hayfields and into the woods on the big loop. at the height of land noah, skip, and i took the skins off for a faster ride down. the snow was a bit stiffer than earlier in the week, but still very fun to ski through. soon enough i was putting my skins back on as i watched the gang going up toward the potato field.
at the high point we turned off to the right and followed a set of ski tracks that i was guessing belonged to al s. he and i use this trail to get to what we call lost pond. if you know where you are going, you can cross the pond and wend your way down to the top of the glades. along the route there are a couple of weird way marks, like a set of well tiles used as foundation posts and one giant, as in really really really big, maple blowdown. i have probably never gone the same way twice, but sooner or later, by hook or by crook, i make it to the top of the glades.
this time, as i had to stop and take my skins off a final time, the p-clan was all there before i pulled up. i didn't stand long and although things were really softening up, and a little sticky in areas, it was a most pleasant descent. our tracks from thursday afternoon made it all the more special as finding a fresh route demanded some creative work--at speed. by the time i got down noah was standing out in the low field with his phone camera ready. he caught me in a final turn and then a few minutes later skip, as he came out of the woods.
many minutes later, eben and linda came through the trees, with eben sporting one bent and one broken pole. the account of the fall was right next to out of control, just where eben tends to keep it. he has almost as many scars as i do, and i'm twice as old. old or young, pendleton or beest, everybody was happy as we skied back to the subaru shed skis and boots and piled in headed for lunch o'clock.
at lunch, noah's encouraging words and skip's discouraging ones, i grilled the infamous peanut butter-mayonnaise sandwich for a taste test. the trick to this sandwich is getting people past the initial ugh/barf reaction. but, as has happened in the past, once someone has a bite, there is rarely a bad reaction, even a unpleasant one.
noah and i took the first bites and came up positive enough to get eben and skip to try a small bit. morgan and linda opted out for a couple of valid reasons and nobody pushed that envelope. while skip did not get overly enthusiastic--he started at such a low point that was probably never going to happen--and eben confessed he didn't think he could eat a whole one, i would say the test was a positive one. at least nobody 'lost their lunch'.
after all the eating was over, and things got cleaned up eben, noah, skip, and i took off to cardigan. with dinner before they all went to see peter pan at the high school in the plan, we had a specific time window to make it up as high as we could before turning it down hill. eben was exchanging his broken poles for a sled and would be on a different trail than we would be. the rest of us went up the ski trail at a good clip. the snow was a bit shifty given its sun exposure but we tried to take note of those differences for when we would be going the opposite way. it got really crusty just past the 'amc east' sign-cairn which prompted us to turn around and take off the skins right there.
given the narrow time window, we didn't dawdle. i didn't stop until i fell very near the bottom of the first ski section. everybody was skiing pretty close and as i went down skip yelled "don't move!" that was helpful as he went flying by pretty close to my twisted skis. we got to the summer parking lot and skated down the road to the winter lot. eben was waiting at the car with a smile and this time a broken water bottle. he entertained us with that story as we piled in and took off to dinner--right on time.
i shared a bite at the table--thank you linda and morgan for getting the tasty meal ready--and caught a ride home on the way to peter pan. as they pulled away i was even able to say hi-goodby to simon whom was on noah's phone. with a day full of pendleton's my smile was as big as the week of skiing. as i got into the house, i remembered pam would be home from israel on tuesday and i had a few projects i still wanted to do. maybe i would go to bed early, very happy, but early...
i also managed to wait until after 8:00 to call over to the pendletons' saturday morning. skip said he would pick me up around 9:00-ish on the way to la salette--again. everyday since the storm it had gotten a little bit clearer, and a little bit warmer. saturday was a long sleeve undershirt over a tshirt kind of day. i skied the whole tour with light gloves and a ball cap for hand and head protection, but never bothered to put a jacket on.
of course you don't really need a jacket when going up hill and we were doing that more than half the time. skip wanted to go back to the narrow woods section on the big loop and then cut over to the glades from the height of land between the potato field and the little sherburne. i was good with that as i would only have to put skins back on once--take them off twice. we set off up the lower hayfield and very shortly noah, eben, and linda, decided to put their skins on as the scales were not really 'cutting it'. while they were busy i scooted over to one of the stations of the cross at the catholic shrine. i didn't stay long as jesus did not look very comfy.
everybody with skins on, we set a comfy pace up the hayfields and into the woods on the big loop. at the height of land noah, skip, and i took the skins off for a faster ride down. the snow was a bit stiffer than earlier in the week, but still very fun to ski through. soon enough i was putting my skins back on as i watched the gang going up toward the potato field.
at the high point we turned off to the right and followed a set of ski tracks that i was guessing belonged to al s. he and i use this trail to get to what we call lost pond. if you know where you are going, you can cross the pond and wend your way down to the top of the glades. along the route there are a couple of weird way marks, like a set of well tiles used as foundation posts and one giant, as in really really really big, maple blowdown. i have probably never gone the same way twice, but sooner or later, by hook or by crook, i make it to the top of the glades.
this time, as i had to stop and take my skins off a final time, the p-clan was all there before i pulled up. i didn't stand long and although things were really softening up, and a little sticky in areas, it was a most pleasant descent. our tracks from thursday afternoon made it all the more special as finding a fresh route demanded some creative work--at speed. by the time i got down noah was standing out in the low field with his phone camera ready. he caught me in a final turn and then a few minutes later skip, as he came out of the woods.
many minutes later, eben and linda came through the trees, with eben sporting one bent and one broken pole. the account of the fall was right next to out of control, just where eben tends to keep it. he has almost as many scars as i do, and i'm twice as old. old or young, pendleton or beest, everybody was happy as we skied back to the subaru shed skis and boots and piled in headed for lunch o'clock.
at lunch, noah's encouraging words and skip's discouraging ones, i grilled the infamous peanut butter-mayonnaise sandwich for a taste test. the trick to this sandwich is getting people past the initial ugh/barf reaction. but, as has happened in the past, once someone has a bite, there is rarely a bad reaction, even a unpleasant one.
noah and i took the first bites and came up positive enough to get eben and skip to try a small bit. morgan and linda opted out for a couple of valid reasons and nobody pushed that envelope. while skip did not get overly enthusiastic--he started at such a low point that was probably never going to happen--and eben confessed he didn't think he could eat a whole one, i would say the test was a positive one. at least nobody 'lost their lunch'.
after all the eating was over, and things got cleaned up eben, noah, skip, and i took off to cardigan. with dinner before they all went to see peter pan at the high school in the plan, we had a specific time window to make it up as high as we could before turning it down hill. eben was exchanging his broken poles for a sled and would be on a different trail than we would be. the rest of us went up the ski trail at a good clip. the snow was a bit shifty given its sun exposure but we tried to take note of those differences for when we would be going the opposite way. it got really crusty just past the 'amc east' sign-cairn which prompted us to turn around and take off the skins right there.
given the narrow time window, we didn't dawdle. i didn't stop until i fell very near the bottom of the first ski section. everybody was skiing pretty close and as i went down skip yelled "don't move!" that was helpful as he went flying by pretty close to my twisted skis. we got to the summer parking lot and skated down the road to the winter lot. eben was waiting at the car with a smile and this time a broken water bottle. he entertained us with that story as we piled in and took off to dinner--right on time.
i shared a bite at the table--thank you linda and morgan for getting the tasty meal ready--and caught a ride home on the way to peter pan. as they pulled away i was even able to say hi-goodby to simon whom was on noah's phone. with a day full of pendleton's my smile was as big as the week of skiing. as i got into the house, i remembered pam would be home from israel on tuesday and i had a few projects i still wanted to do. maybe i would go to bed early, very happy, but early...
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