three days with billy

 the days: feb 9th-11th. thursday- cool, cloudy, windy, snow, frozen rain, rain--the dreaded 'wintry mix'... friday- not quite as cool or cloudy, much much windier, no precip ... saturday- much cooler, wicked sunny, the wind blowing around the dusting of snow from the morning ...

the adventures: thursday, we went up to the south and north peaks of moose mtn. on wolfeboro road, and the AT, then down through the woods. friday, we went up cardigan via south ridge and came down on west ridge. saturday morning, skiing out in the 'back 40', and skating on mascoma lake in the afternoon.

the memories: a friend of pam's, i met billy up in the white mtns back in the 70s. we shared a love for the outdoors and have kept up through the years, often packing in multiple adventures during a visit*. living in rhode island for some years now, when he comes north we try to go outside and play as much as possible. thursday's hike up moose mountain on the AT, wet his proverbial whistle hitting both south peak and north peak.

in between, i cut a tree leaning over the trail and we used it for a lunch bench. while we were munching sandwiches and drinking tea, billy's phone rang. iona was calling from scotland! it was even better than the chocolate bar we had for dessert. 

for 'fun' and comfort we used snowshoes which were handy on the trail and mandatory when we dropped off the ridge into the woods. heading toward north peak, billy stopped me to get pictures with the ledge in the background. it was a pretty little segment.

friday, we didn't get any pictures on cardigan--i had forgotten my camera and billy's phone slipped out of his pocket when he was in the truck. trust me, it was beautiful going over south ridge. the ice flows (the picture below is from a couple years back but looks very similar) were in fine form and the ridge was totally covered in snow.

saturday morning after pancakes, billy wanted to get out on skis, "just in case this is my only chance to ski this winter..." things were pretty frozen up, but it was sunny, and is there such a thing as a bad time on skis?! 

after billy left, i went over to the bike shop to sweep--i took my skates. i parked at the bridge, thinking i could skate over to shaker village. the ice looked ok, but proved to be rather sketchy. the whole west side, which i'd have to cross to get to drummond's, was super rough and snowy, so i stayed to the east. after a breakable and wet upper layer felled me a couple of times i turned back.

notes:

• ice can be nice
• snow can blow
• sun is fun
• billy is ... not all that silly

go outside and play!

ps--*search 'goap!' for billy, tracey, and/or iona and you should find more than a few posts from the past.