bonus! a snow day and i could take off work!!

it started snowing monday as i was finishing up a couple of computer images. craig stopped by--at an appropriate social distance--and asked how much did i think we would get. i committed to 5 inches, with "anything more would be a gift from the goddesses! and i won't be coming into work."

it came down hard all evening and by the time we went up to bed, there was a good pile on top of the vehicles. we had our five inches already--and it was still snowing. it was also in the upper 20°s, and supposedly going to stay there. that meant i would be skiing in the morning. thank you goddesses!

tuesday: the plow went by around 3:30a and woke me. as i lay waiting for its return trip, i heard a telltale creeeck of the snow pack on the roof, releasing tension as it got ready to slide. they were coming only one or two every five minutes or so when the plow came back, around 4:00a. there was no way i was falling back to sleep.

i had an early breakfast with tea, while finishing up and posting a late, monday's 'word for the week' in ttyol. as soon as it got light enough, i put on my snow bibs and went out to shovel. at some point, i was surprised by pam, sticking her head out the door, "skip's on the phone." we had planned to meet up at cardigan 9:30~ish, after he remotely met with his students. his principal had called all that off with the announcement, "it's a luddite day!"--the coronavirus school shutdown equivalent of a snow day. that meant we were going up early.

we got at least a half-a-foot down in the 'low' lands which usually meant more up high. it would be nice to get first tracks. i got my skis ready and was out the door before 8:00a. we were the first two there and being a little earlier than skip, i got three 'bottom' runs in as he geared up. there was plenty of snow--i never saw those two little 'doggie bags'--even on that section where the base had completely melted. after we rounded the first corner, our poles never even hit solid.



it was wet~ish and stick~ish enough that we left skins in our packs and went sliding along fairly quickly. skip did some herringboning on the steep in the first ski trail section. my scales were holding pretty well, even clumping some. i took the saw out when we got into the second section and we trimmed out a prominent spine running along the brook. if we remembered to turn into the woods, we could avoid the big ditch.

when we got back on the main trail, we crossed a set of boot tracks with dog prints. while we were cutting, a snow boarder and his dog got up above us. skip thought he recognized him. we were tracking the ski sections and trimming things as we went, so he got well ahead of us. close to the waterfall section, he came sliding down. as he slowly went by skip asked how the conditions were, he admitted, "a bit slow."

we kept on going up and saw where he had turned at the top of the fourth section. we were hoping to top out at the cornice on the upper end of the chute. interestingly, the snow seemed to be less deep up high. while we crossed over to the east side on the hurricane trail, the sun was trying to break through and making it even stickier--way stickier. that short section also had some wicked whoop-de-doo drifts that would be a blast skiing.



the cornice at the top of the chute stopped us. we tightened our boots, locked down our bindings, skip shortened his poles, and gave me a social distance smile. as i snapped the picture of our tracks i got pretty excited--according to skip, this definitely had potential to be "the best skiing ever!"

i never took the camera back out and stopped for only a few heart beats, once to saw out a couple of beech branches on that "prominent spine" that i had missed. skip waited above until i got out of the way and zipped through the fairly clear line.



the skiing was a delight. and as minute by minute it was getting warmer and warmer--read stickier and slower--we had gotten in and out in good time. 'go out and play!' early and often was working its magic and making us smile.





ps--having written about the woman "yelling and swearing" about social distancing in "recon up west ridge trail...", heard the state fish and game folk's "covid-19 response" discourage risky adventures in the mountains, and read several articles like outside online's "you probably shouldn't be backcountry..." i am well aware of avoiding elevated risk and will be changing my 'go out and play!' activities to less risky and local. keep smiling, be safe, and be well.

three days on town hill, and a recon up the west ridge trail on cardigan--with a birthday wish!

that's right, we were forecasted to get 6-8~ish inches of snow on monday evening! a couple of hikes up cardigan let me know that there was still plenty of base left, from tree-line down. that much snow would be great--probably even cover the dog shit!! in the meantime, town hill was right out our door.



friday: pam and i are hiking up town hill a lot in these days of social distancing. there is much comfort in stepping out the kitchen door and walking for miles without crossing paths with others. we did the short loop, past the truck and back on the porcupine trail. there was a section deeper in the woods, out of the sun, with a fair amount of snow left. i got pam to stop for a photo opp.



a pair of wellies and the bottoms of pam's poles give you an idea of what the rest of the trail is like--wet and leafy. it was warm enough to take off her jacket though, which probably meant closer to 50° than 40°. i never checked, but my t-shirt and sweater was plenty comfortable.





saturday: i had been hearing of a possible good amount of snow coming monday, so after breakfast i decided to run up the west ridge trail and scope out the remaining base after the warm day friday. i didn't think it would change much, but if it did i wanted to know where to not to deep carve a turn. plus it was sadie's birthday and i had a little penguin that wanted her send her a message--happy birthday sadila!

the coverage was still pretty good and certainly nothing 6~ish inches wouldn't cover enough to never notice. there were a few cars parked at the bottom, but hiking the ski trail, i saw nobody all the way up, and most of the way down. i ended up passing two parties, a bit surprised they didn't have micro-spikes and  wondered how far they would end up going? a cold night had frozen things up solid and it was slippery!




i was not surprised at the number of dogs going up the mtn. in my last post i complained about all the dog shit in the middle of the trail. i had removed two big piles up higher today already. but as i got to the last corner, i saw two tied up bags of poop set by the side of the road. my only hope was that the owners who left it were still hiking and would be picking it up on their way down. it made me mad enough to almost say something--almost.



when i got down to the gate, a group of college kids were rounding one side as i went around the other. an older woman was standing in the road "ripping them a new asshole" (as she informed her partner when i passed by) on the seriousness of social distancing. even though i was just thinking about telling the next dog owners to be sure and clean up after their pet, i was a little taken aback at her yelling and swearing. i threw my stuff into the truck and left that scene.

pam and i took the afternoon to walk the town hill loop again and this time i took a series of her on the big snowy section.



it was cold enough today to keep the jacket and hat on, though the wellies were still useful in the wet sections.



sunday: was another cold morning, but by the time we went out in the afternoon, it was getting close to freezing. we took the loop counter clockwise today so we hit the snow patch going the opposite way. i almost forgot to get a picture, but i managed to snap this one just before she walked off of it.


given we still had plenty of daylight left--note my shadow is not as long as pam's was in the series above--we decided to hike all the way to the marsh off bear pond road. i did a little cutting along the way, trimming back small trees bending into the trail. there is one section where the trees have really long, sharp thorns, and they always seem need cutting back. someday i will look them up and identify them--i don't think they are native.

the beaver pond at the bottom of the trail--just beyond the thorns--still had a skin of ice on it in a couple of places, way too thin to cross over. i looked for wood ducks on the open water out in the sun, but i think it's still a week or two early. the hike back went smoothly and we were coming down town hill with an hour of sunlight to spare.




these three day weekends, with our backyard trails, are pretty sweet. it's enough to put a smile on a face, especially with snow in the forecast. who wouldn't want to 'go outside and play!' with all those riches?