weekends book ended a couple of weeks with all sorts of weather, enabling all kinds of activities--and spoiling others.
back on the 24th of april, we got 6-8 inches of medium fluff. by medium, i mean on the light sight of heavy, but just. by saturday when skip and i took our skis over to goodhue hill road heading up to butternut pond, it had warmed to around freezing and the snow thickened into something similar to goopy oatmeal. as we parked, we caught site of a lone skier on the other of the pile where the plow stops. we got our boots and skis on and followed after, wondering the usual who, what, where stuff. the closed road was very pleasant and would be steep enough to give us a good ride down through the thickening snow.
about half way up the steeper section, the tracks ahead of us turned off the road and went into the woods. we speculated that the trail paralleled the ridge north, over to the shaker wildlife area. we kept to goodhue and a half mile of up later, fresh ski tracks came out of the woods and crossed into the woods on the south side of the woods. whoever was skiing ahead of us, it was obvious he knew the area. the last time skip and i had been here was years ago, and then in the summer, on bikes. we decided to follow the tracks and turned off the road.
it turned out to parallel goodhue for another half mile until it met a major crossing trail with the mystery skier standing in the middle of the junction. he was headed back down the crossing logging trail into enfield center where he lived. we were going to get back on goodhue and continue to butternut or turn around and ski down. after a brief chat, he went his way and we took off our skins, deciding going down would be more fun given the slow conditions.
the snow was almost sticky and weaving through the trees was quite tame compared to some downhill runs i have been on. in the woods, the angle was gentle enough to slow us almost too much and we got back to the steeper road hoping for added speed. we got our wish, but the oatmeal thick quality kept us focused so we didn't face plant and end up eating it.
we met at the bottom, atop the snow pile, with smiles but i don't recall any "best skiing ever" proclamations as we took skis off and walked to the car. given the conditions, it didn't take too much to decide we didn't really need to stop at la salette and take another run. when we got the car going, it turned out it was fairly late which made it even easier to head back home.
likewise, it was easy to say no thanks when skip called up on sunday to see if i wanted to try the skiway. i took a run up cardigan, sans skis--or camera--and called it a good day: dry feet, no blood, some sun on the top of my bald head.
speaking of bald heads in the sun, thursday i remembered the camera on my second day at the skiway that week.
i had meetings in the afternoon, so i went for a late morning run or three. it had rained monday through tuesday (softly enough to go over and take one run after work) then into wednesday when it sort of cleared-ish. of course it got cold wednesday night, and thursday morning the snow was pretty solid. but i was counting on a strong sun in a blue-bird sky, to soften things up by the time i got there.
again, i got my wish. i headed up the winslow side with the barlows, a couple i met at the bottom putting their skins on for a second run. a soft top on pretty much total coverage was glorious. i tried to convince them to take a holt's side run but their schedule was tight, so i headed up warden's solo. the snow on that side was equally soft, until i got to the headwall section--where i stopped and took the pictures above.
the reflective sheen in the 'looking up' picture on the left was indeed ice, but skis turned in it rather than sliding and scraping. the steepest part of the headwall wasn't catching enough sun to soften it like the rest of the trails, but i was able to set an edge and carve. of course each arc cut up and let loose a load of crust which noisily followed my line down. i veered off twice to ski out of the stream of crust, until cut myself loose and skied out in front of it. by the time i flew by the my first picture spot, the snow was perfect, and the turns felt like cutting butter with a warm knife.
such were the conditions thursday with a predicted 'noreaster' scheduled for friday into saturday. things sounded like we would get a foot or more of snow--that would make things exciting in the backcountry. sure enough, it started building friday evening and by saturday morning we had a good foot or more. where to go skiing today? after skip had plowed out, i picked him up and we headed over to cardigan mountain. over the years, more and more skiers had been doing the same, and we had been talking about finding a new 'local' line to ski on the mountain in our back yard.
instead of going up to the winter parking lot, we turned onto peaslee road and drove to the plow pile at its end. it was still snowing as we geared up and took off into the deep. neither of us had ever been this way, but we had scouted it out on google and had an idea of where we wanted to go. skip had an old map and compass which we hoped to be able to help make sense of a route.
a long road into a summer camp got us a mile or so in before we were into the woods, on our own so to speak. we were able to follow some sort of old logging trail quite a bit further, but eventually, the brush got thick and we were definitely whacking it. when we burst out into a clearing, it felt good, even though the clouds offered only the slightest hint of a ridgeline off to the east. map and compass suggested that we were probably looking at firescrew and the summit of cardigan was off to the south. that made sense to us and we figured we would return to scout the rest of the trail out when we could actually see further.
the ski out was great in those parts of the woods that were fairly open. i did get whapped by a few branches, but nothing drew blood--or much of it. out on the road, the depth slowed us right down except for the couple of steeper sections. when we got back to the truck, i contemplated a run up to the park, but skip wanted to ski the cardigan trails with linda so we headed to his house. while we ate a bit of lunch, i got back on google and tried to figure out where we had actually gotten to. my hope was to go back and connect that end point with the snow fields off the summit.
the clouds lifted enough to see on sunday, but it also warmed which would make a foot of snow feel like wet cement--as opposed to a half-a-foot feel like "goopy oatmeal". when, skip called to coax me over to the ski way, i again declined. this time i went snowshoeing with pam.
skip--as in pass by--a few week days of more rain and one of fairly warm sun, some strong wind blowing flurries on saturday last, and you get to bright sunny sunday with temps headed into the 50's. i couldn't reach skip--my adventure buddy--so i grabbed pam's smaller pair of snow shoes, forgetting the camera, again, and drove back to peaslee road. i followed our last week's path in, though it was barely visible, and made it up into the woods without too much problem. in the woods things got much softer and deeper which made me glad to have snowshoes--even though skip does not like to snowshoe they are sometimes the best means of getting about in winter.
when i got back to the clearing we hit upon last weekend, i could easily see the tower up on cardigan summit. i took a compass reading--160°south--and tied a piece of flagging tape on a small fir. my hope was to get up there over a possible-skiable trail. going was slow but i kept at it, following the path of least resistance where i could, whacking through the bush where i had to.
a few hours later i popped out onto a lower snowfield just below the mowgli trail turns up at the final few hundred yards, headed to the summit of cardigan--yeah! i took a compass reading looking back down from the tower to the clearings i could see below where i had just come from and figured, ok that might work. i tied another piece of flagging tape before i dove back down into the drainage i had followed up.
going down is always quicker than getting up, but the steepness definitely didn't make it easier. still, the drainage looked like it would definitely be possible to ski given a full load of winter snow. of course, as i went back through those thick spots i imagined, a bit of clearing would be necessary. and for that, permissions had to be gotten. going by the camp--the snow was super soft now--i thought they could be the first people we'd ask.
when i got back to peaslee road, the owner of the driveway at the plow pile was out redistributing mud to help drain things. we talked a bit and when i left, i had a good feeling of a trail happening someday.
back on the 24th of april, we got 6-8 inches of medium fluff. by medium, i mean on the light sight of heavy, but just. by saturday when skip and i took our skis over to goodhue hill road heading up to butternut pond, it had warmed to around freezing and the snow thickened into something similar to goopy oatmeal. as we parked, we caught site of a lone skier on the other of the pile where the plow stops. we got our boots and skis on and followed after, wondering the usual who, what, where stuff. the closed road was very pleasant and would be steep enough to give us a good ride down through the thickening snow.
about half way up the steeper section, the tracks ahead of us turned off the road and went into the woods. we speculated that the trail paralleled the ridge north, over to the shaker wildlife area. we kept to goodhue and a half mile of up later, fresh ski tracks came out of the woods and crossed into the woods on the south side of the woods. whoever was skiing ahead of us, it was obvious he knew the area. the last time skip and i had been here was years ago, and then in the summer, on bikes. we decided to follow the tracks and turned off the road.
it turned out to parallel goodhue for another half mile until it met a major crossing trail with the mystery skier standing in the middle of the junction. he was headed back down the crossing logging trail into enfield center where he lived. we were going to get back on goodhue and continue to butternut or turn around and ski down. after a brief chat, he went his way and we took off our skins, deciding going down would be more fun given the slow conditions.
the snow was almost sticky and weaving through the trees was quite tame compared to some downhill runs i have been on. in the woods, the angle was gentle enough to slow us almost too much and we got back to the steeper road hoping for added speed. we got our wish, but the oatmeal thick quality kept us focused so we didn't face plant and end up eating it.
we met at the bottom, atop the snow pile, with smiles but i don't recall any "best skiing ever" proclamations as we took skis off and walked to the car. given the conditions, it didn't take too much to decide we didn't really need to stop at la salette and take another run. when we got the car going, it turned out it was fairly late which made it even easier to head back home.
likewise, it was easy to say no thanks when skip called up on sunday to see if i wanted to try the skiway. i took a run up cardigan, sans skis--or camera--and called it a good day: dry feet, no blood, some sun on the top of my bald head.
speaking of bald heads in the sun, thursday i remembered the camera on my second day at the skiway that week.
i had meetings in the afternoon, so i went for a late morning run or three. it had rained monday through tuesday (softly enough to go over and take one run after work) then into wednesday when it sort of cleared-ish. of course it got cold wednesday night, and thursday morning the snow was pretty solid. but i was counting on a strong sun in a blue-bird sky, to soften things up by the time i got there.
again, i got my wish. i headed up the winslow side with the barlows, a couple i met at the bottom putting their skins on for a second run. a soft top on pretty much total coverage was glorious. i tried to convince them to take a holt's side run but their schedule was tight, so i headed up warden's solo. the snow on that side was equally soft, until i got to the headwall section--where i stopped and took the pictures above.
the reflective sheen in the 'looking up' picture on the left was indeed ice, but skis turned in it rather than sliding and scraping. the steepest part of the headwall wasn't catching enough sun to soften it like the rest of the trails, but i was able to set an edge and carve. of course each arc cut up and let loose a load of crust which noisily followed my line down. i veered off twice to ski out of the stream of crust, until cut myself loose and skied out in front of it. by the time i flew by the my first picture spot, the snow was perfect, and the turns felt like cutting butter with a warm knife.
such were the conditions thursday with a predicted 'noreaster' scheduled for friday into saturday. things sounded like we would get a foot or more of snow--that would make things exciting in the backcountry. sure enough, it started building friday evening and by saturday morning we had a good foot or more. where to go skiing today? after skip had plowed out, i picked him up and we headed over to cardigan mountain. over the years, more and more skiers had been doing the same, and we had been talking about finding a new 'local' line to ski on the mountain in our back yard.
instead of going up to the winter parking lot, we turned onto peaslee road and drove to the plow pile at its end. it was still snowing as we geared up and took off into the deep. neither of us had ever been this way, but we had scouted it out on google and had an idea of where we wanted to go. skip had an old map and compass which we hoped to be able to help make sense of a route.a long road into a summer camp got us a mile or so in before we were into the woods, on our own so to speak. we were able to follow some sort of old logging trail quite a bit further, but eventually, the brush got thick and we were definitely whacking it. when we burst out into a clearing, it felt good, even though the clouds offered only the slightest hint of a ridgeline off to the east. map and compass suggested that we were probably looking at firescrew and the summit of cardigan was off to the south. that made sense to us and we figured we would return to scout the rest of the trail out when we could actually see further.
the ski out was great in those parts of the woods that were fairly open. i did get whapped by a few branches, but nothing drew blood--or much of it. out on the road, the depth slowed us right down except for the couple of steeper sections. when we got back to the truck, i contemplated a run up to the park, but skip wanted to ski the cardigan trails with linda so we headed to his house. while we ate a bit of lunch, i got back on google and tried to figure out where we had actually gotten to. my hope was to go back and connect that end point with the snow fields off the summit.
the clouds lifted enough to see on sunday, but it also warmed which would make a foot of snow feel like wet cement--as opposed to a half-a-foot feel like "goopy oatmeal". when, skip called to coax me over to the ski way, i again declined. this time i went snowshoeing with pam.
skip--as in pass by--a few week days of more rain and one of fairly warm sun, some strong wind blowing flurries on saturday last, and you get to bright sunny sunday with temps headed into the 50's. i couldn't reach skip--my adventure buddy--so i grabbed pam's smaller pair of snow shoes, forgetting the camera, again, and drove back to peaslee road. i followed our last week's path in, though it was barely visible, and made it up into the woods without too much problem. in the woods things got much softer and deeper which made me glad to have snowshoes--even though skip does not like to snowshoe they are sometimes the best means of getting about in winter.
when i got back to the clearing we hit upon last weekend, i could easily see the tower up on cardigan summit. i took a compass reading--160°south--and tied a piece of flagging tape on a small fir. my hope was to get up there over a possible-skiable trail. going was slow but i kept at it, following the path of least resistance where i could, whacking through the bush where i had to.
a few hours later i popped out onto a lower snowfield just below the mowgli trail turns up at the final few hundred yards, headed to the summit of cardigan--yeah! i took a compass reading looking back down from the tower to the clearings i could see below where i had just come from and figured, ok that might work. i tied another piece of flagging tape before i dove back down into the drainage i had followed up.
going down is always quicker than getting up, but the steepness definitely didn't make it easier. still, the drainage looked like it would definitely be possible to ski given a full load of winter snow. of course, as i went back through those thick spots i imagined, a bit of clearing would be necessary. and for that, permissions had to be gotten. going by the camp--the snow was super soft now--i thought they could be the first people we'd ask.
when i got back to peaslee road, the owner of the driveway at the plow pile was out redistributing mud to help drain things. we talked a bit and when i left, i had a good feeling of a trail happening someday.
