helping the shaker museum with a relatively snowless snowshoe festival. i have been working with the enfield shaker museum doing a winter festival for years now. the last five or so, we have called it the snowshoe festival, encouraging people to come out and tromp about the lower shaker wildlife management area trails. back when we started with a winter celebration, i did some trail work for the event and have been the go-to trail guy ever since.
i had great hope for snow on the trails this year, skiing them--three times, each with increasing coverage--before the new year. on the last day of the year, three of us set some good tracks pretty much anywhere we wanted, woods or trails. i actually told my buddies, "at least this year we'll have some snow!" but then we got a couple 'wintry mix' events, a bunch of rain, some days of warm weather, and deep coverage was not to be. in fact, i felt pretty lucky with the scant amount we have left.
regardless of the sketchy coverage, i started flagging the three trails we mark, a few weekends before the event. pam went with on the first go out round the blue loop. she noted that she was very thankful to have her micro-spikes on. i went back alone the next day and put out the green tape. i ended up cutting a few blowdowns out of the trail as well. then last friday, i brought over the high school loner snowshoes, and finished the yellow trail, all the while wondering if many people would venture out given such icy conditions.
early saturday morning, i headed over to do one more loop around to leave a few footprints for people to follow. when i came back down to the start at the stone mill, where they had set up the loner snowshoes, i found olivia and amy, NHS students volunteering for the day. both of them are also active in the MOC and i was pleased to see them. while amy stayed at the mill to help with the snowshoes, olivia and i went back out to loop the green trail--the only one i hadn't done in the past week. at the height of land, just before the 'potato field', we ran into a large ash that had been leaning over for years, but now was on the ground. we worked at clearing that for quite a while, as it was over 12 inches in diameter, and heavy.
we got to the blue-green junction and met up with harrison, another trail guide, and chatted a bit. we took off after a large group of shoe-rs went by. i wanted to be sure of a fairly messy stream crossing before they got there. we got to the crossing ahead of the group and cleaned up the large beech that obstructed the easiest way over the stream. after directing a few other groups, some going one direction, some the other, we took off toward the yellow-blue junction at the top of the upper hay field.
at that junction, we stopped for a while directing people coming and going. it got to be after noon, so we decided to head down to the great stone dwelling where they had a lunch set up. as we were passing a connection into the hayfield i crossed over to help a group of about a dozen micro-spikers, shoe-rs, and plain ol' booters. turns out it was joe's family gathering with three of the denzer kids. i see owen at this event every year, sometimes margaret. this year hannah was with. we stopped for a group shot of the old and new MOC members.
we got to talking so, that olivia finally escaped to go get some lunch. the rest of us slowly made our way down. at a tricky part in the trail, we met betsy--harrison's wife, fellow trail guide, and mother of meg who just happens to be one of hannah's good friends. it is a small world. (speaking of which, check out jan 28's post on coincidence.)
we finally made it down to lunch and kept chatting over chili and mac & cheese. the event was winding down as we split up and i went back out to pack up the loner snowshoes. as i pulled away from the mill headed down the icy drive, i wondered if next year we would have better snow.
on sunday morning, pam and i went back to the trails to meet betsy and harrison and sweep the trails, removing the flagging. new hampshire fish and game, who own most of the land the trails pass over, has asked us to take down the flagging each year. i am not real sure why this is a priority for them, but we get to use the trails, so i am happy to do it. we split up in a fashion to get it done fairly quickly with nobody having to walk the whole system. we met up again at the blue-green junction and walked the final half-mile back to the vehicles.
out the icy drive one last time, i wondered again about snow. i won't hold my breath for next year but, it would be nice to get a little this winter. the MOC deep freeze overnight olivia is helping me organize happens over february break, in just three weeks. i will let you know...
i had great hope for snow on the trails this year, skiing them--three times, each with increasing coverage--before the new year. on the last day of the year, three of us set some good tracks pretty much anywhere we wanted, woods or trails. i actually told my buddies, "at least this year we'll have some snow!" but then we got a couple 'wintry mix' events, a bunch of rain, some days of warm weather, and deep coverage was not to be. in fact, i felt pretty lucky with the scant amount we have left.
regardless of the sketchy coverage, i started flagging the three trails we mark, a few weekends before the event. pam went with on the first go out round the blue loop. she noted that she was very thankful to have her micro-spikes on. i went back alone the next day and put out the green tape. i ended up cutting a few blowdowns out of the trail as well. then last friday, i brought over the high school loner snowshoes, and finished the yellow trail, all the while wondering if many people would venture out given such icy conditions.
early saturday morning, i headed over to do one more loop around to leave a few footprints for people to follow. when i came back down to the start at the stone mill, where they had set up the loner snowshoes, i found olivia and amy, NHS students volunteering for the day. both of them are also active in the MOC and i was pleased to see them. while amy stayed at the mill to help with the snowshoes, olivia and i went back out to loop the green trail--the only one i hadn't done in the past week. at the height of land, just before the 'potato field', we ran into a large ash that had been leaning over for years, but now was on the ground. we worked at clearing that for quite a while, as it was over 12 inches in diameter, and heavy.
we got to the blue-green junction and met up with harrison, another trail guide, and chatted a bit. we took off after a large group of shoe-rs went by. i wanted to be sure of a fairly messy stream crossing before they got there. we got to the crossing ahead of the group and cleaned up the large beech that obstructed the easiest way over the stream. after directing a few other groups, some going one direction, some the other, we took off toward the yellow-blue junction at the top of the upper hay field.
at that junction, we stopped for a while directing people coming and going. it got to be after noon, so we decided to head down to the great stone dwelling where they had a lunch set up. as we were passing a connection into the hayfield i crossed over to help a group of about a dozen micro-spikers, shoe-rs, and plain ol' booters. turns out it was joe's family gathering with three of the denzer kids. i see owen at this event every year, sometimes margaret. this year hannah was with. we stopped for a group shot of the old and new MOC members.
we got to talking so, that olivia finally escaped to go get some lunch. the rest of us slowly made our way down. at a tricky part in the trail, we met betsy--harrison's wife, fellow trail guide, and mother of meg who just happens to be one of hannah's good friends. it is a small world. (speaking of which, check out jan 28's post on coincidence.)
we finally made it down to lunch and kept chatting over chili and mac & cheese. the event was winding down as we split up and i went back out to pack up the loner snowshoes. as i pulled away from the mill headed down the icy drive, i wondered if next year we would have better snow.
on sunday morning, pam and i went back to the trails to meet betsy and harrison and sweep the trails, removing the flagging. new hampshire fish and game, who own most of the land the trails pass over, has asked us to take down the flagging each year. i am not real sure why this is a priority for them, but we get to use the trails, so i am happy to do it. we split up in a fashion to get it done fairly quickly with nobody having to walk the whole system. we met up again at the blue-green junction and walked the final half-mile back to the vehicles.
out the icy drive one last time, i wondered again about snow. i won't hold my breath for next year but, it would be nice to get a little this winter. the MOC deep freeze overnight olivia is helping me organize happens over february break, in just three weeks. i will let you know...
