finding the fluff...

a morning at shaker wildlife management area! 

thursday, as mentioned in the previous post, skip and i ended a great ski, slogging though some wicked sticky snow at the bottom of cardigan. i went to bed that night thinking the cold would dry things out and make friday morning even better than 'the best skiing ever'. 

i woke up early and excited, thinking after a quick breakfast i could get right out, up, down, and be at school by building class time. i put together the day's load, school stuff and a lunch curry to take up to ken's after class, and took off. i had my boots on and in the bindings, going across the big field before 7:00a. 





with all that early energy i choose the steep, 2nd left to get me up to lost pond even quicker. chugging uphill warmed me up and i stopped to snap a picture of the sun filtering through the snowy trees. i took a selfie so you could see how beautiful i am.








it didn't take too long to get up to the pond, even stopping to take another couple of pictures: one of a snow laden tree and another of my ski pole stuck upright to show snow depth. the black cam lock on the pole is at 21 inches. that particular spot seemed to be about average--i saw a few places where it was buried. 






the pond was beautiful, even with the sun behind the clouds...

i put my jacket, hat, and gloves on, buckled up my boots, switched bindings into downhill mode, and pushed off. the snow was about as delightful as one could hope for on the east coast. it was a grand day to be making tracks in the woods.



the only other tracks i saw were from animals of all sizes. mice and deer were the main ones, with occasional squirrels. but as i tipped down one hill i crossed a deep trench disappearing into a jumble of roots and downed trees. as i went by i remembered sawyer and colin's porcupine adventures, managed to stop and go back up to snap a picture.


the snow was only a day old so i figured the critter was in there somewhere sleeping off the storm. the toes on the tracks going in supported that notion. in any case, i was not going to crawl in there like sawyer did to get some face time with a porky. there was way too much snow to be had with almost all of it, going downhill. 








it was the right choice. i didn't stop until i thought one more picture might be good to show what 'the glades' looked like. it is one of my favorite places to ski. at one steep point i had snow flying off my front knee as i leaned into turns. by the time i stopped again at the bottom i was feeling like i had finally found the truth
in skip's adage, "best skiing ever!"


back at the truck, boots off, and skis stowed i was already thinking about doing this again tomorrow morning. we had another cold night coming, maybe things would stay--maybe skip could even join me.

some of the best skiing ever...

as we like to say--at least until we got most of the way down.

mascoma schools shut their doors yesterday at 3:00p and told everybody not to comeback until friday. that was fine with me what with the expected foot of snow we were scheduled for. when i "headed up the wooden mountain" as pam's dad used to call going to bed, up the stairs, we had a good six inches. i spent the night dreaming we would at least double that, with any luck triple it. that, and i wondered if skip's knee was finally fit enough to go up and down a mountain.

my dreams all came true--there was at least 18 inches in the morning and when i called skippy, he said yes, as long as the mountain was local. i put my moosilauke hopes back to bed, geared up, did a little shoveling, got the truck cleaned off, loaded, and went to get skip. we made it out of his dooryard soon enough, headed for cardigan.

after a couple of near death experiences on the cardigan road, one with a town snowplow, and another with a sliding car--the latter driven by mascoma's music teacher, involved a significant amount of folderol getting him out of the ditch as well as avoiding going in ourselves--we finally got our boots and skis on and "headed up the snowy mountain." skip's comment right at the first steep section was telling, "the snow is so deep, we're going to have to double pole to get through!" when you have to double pole downhill, you know it's deep.

breaking trail uphill through that deepness, we warmed up quickly. a delayering and water break gave us a chance to snap a couple of pictures.

























you can tell who hogs most of the covers in bed at night. that's ok, pam's nickname for me is "the furnace"... somewhere about here, we stuck our poles in and estimated 20" of fluff. this was boding well.

boding so well, we purposely tracked out our line, to give ourselves a bit of speed on the descent. being first to the fresh has lots of positives. when it is steep, it's good to be deep. but not so steep and too deep, it can get slow and at times you really do need to pole to keep moving. thankfully, there is plenty of steep on 'our side of the mtn.' and this fluffy stuff should let us glide right through--'like butta'.

as we got to 'east to amc' (this picture was in my portfolio from a cold run i took around christmas) i queried the master as to which way he desired to turn. no pressure, but i was glad he chose right to 'the chute', one of our favorite runs.

here is where our first tracks would have some negatives. hikers like to follow an established path. last year, if i got out later than i wanted, the chute would often be shot. snowshoers liked that route as much as we do. it's no wonder, it really is beautiful. this trip i snapped a picture at the bottom looking up, as well as the top looking down.




we de-skinned and had a snack. i scraped the skin glue off my skis for a little more fast. with boots buckled and bindings set for downhill, we dropped in. i convinced skip that if i went first--i had my no scale skis and they run faster than his scaled ones--his run would be smoother and he wouldn't go so slow. it seemed to work as the rest of the way down, he was urging me ahead.

like i mentioned earlier, until we got toward the bottom, it was really great skiing, fast enough in the steep, narrow spots to get your heart rate up, and smooth enough everywhere else to cut some sweet turns. we even both got a little air here and there off well placed rocks buried in the powder. at "go right--no, your other right"* creek i heard a little whoop behind me as skip launched off a fun drop.

shortly after that, as we got to the flats going by the shed, all the fun went out of it. the warming temp. and the moisture rich snow started getting super sticky. if you kept sliding, as flat-skied as possible, you wouldn't bog down too too much, but it was a slog the rest of the way to the truck. i experimented with going out of our tracks, but even in the fresh it was slow.









no matter, even though we did end up poling hard, it was some of "the best skiing ever" and we had smiles to prove it!










*it's a long story, but skip was yelling, aaron got confused, i was filming--if i can find the footage i will load it here.

found it--and it's a classic!

epic ice...

and much warmer/easier going up than coming down!

this year's crew--ten students and kendra our school social worker, made the MOC deepfreeze overnight up  smarts mtn.



it is always interesting to see what kids deem necessary for a winter trip to an unheated cabin on the top of a mountain. even the ones who have been there before, and/or pay any attention to the printed info i give out or advice they hear at a meeting, bring or forget things that surprise me. fortunately, nobody has repeated the axe body spray incident from a number years back--at least that horror story seems to work. and now that i think of it, there have been no alcohol, drug, or tobacco episodes in almost 10 years. but, every year peculiar items show up, some that make me smile, some that make me scratch my head.

this year was a big smile year! nick brought his drone and flew it up at lunch rocks, even filming us.

there were a few glitches on the scratch my head side of things, but the weather and our approach brought us back safe. we worked around the micro-spikes liz left at julia's when repacking. had we known, i actually had an extra pair in the truck. christian, thankfully you got by without the gloves you left in lincoln's car. and torey and jordan, what's the big deal about not having a bowl, spoon, or cup to eat and drink with--we are all friends, we can share. 



one thing that has never been a problem has been the sleeping gear. only once have i lent out the extra bag i bring along, just in case. this year was warm--record breaking even--than usual, but atop a mtn it is regularly colder than down in the valley, and then there is the wind. a crew of four decided that they wanted to brave the tower despite torey's story of a fairly sleepless, windy, frigid night last year. in the cabin at least we didn't have to worry about frozen water this year, but it did dip into the teens °F at the coldest part of the early morning. 


we got breakfast going around 7:00a and the tower sleepers came in soon after. everybody helped out with the morning tasks and soon enough we were packed, cleaned, and on the porch for the iconic cabin picture. dirk set up his GoPro and we all smiled--that's christian's best chernobyl smile.

the lower temps, hardened--and significantly slicked up--yesterday's soft ice making for an epic decent. while the agile, be-spiked among us made it down in good time, it took quite a bit longer for the slow and cautious. since last night, i was wondering what the river crossing would be like and hoped the lead group would scout out a decent crossing. 

when kendra got to open water, she smiled big, "this is so awesome!" 

downstream of this picture, with a good stretch for her smaller inseam, we made it across without falling in. 










from the river out, it is a mile and a half slog, only this time with ice. fresh snow falling, step by slippery step, we made it to the truck. dirk and justin had left early with their parents, which made me happy considering the missed-pickup last year. another group had left with julia. the final group pulled out just ahead of kendra and me. 

everybody seemed pretty satisfied with our 'going out and playing!'

fickle weather...

sunday morning i got out for a sunrise ski...

in six inches of super-light snow, over last week's former foot of fluff, turned crusty and chunky under a day of rain--it was fast, approaching furious. the extra turns needed to stay this side of control were well worth cranking. it was incredibly beautiful. a good bit of last night's snow with zero wind stayed piled up in trees, especially the evergreens. in the dawn's early light, formidable showers of fluff fell in sparkling avalanches.

i would have liked to have a picture for you, but as usual, i forgot the camera. that was not the case today. souke, grace, and i went out sledding once in the am and again in the pm--or first in the soft, relatively dry, cold snow out in the field and then later, the wet, sticky, warm stuff up on town hill. i took some footage of the afternoon runs.



grace was a trooper out on the hill, but i think she was tired by dinner...

i just tucked her into bed, still with sally, soy's favorite bear from his youth.

tomorrow is a shopping day for MOC 'deepfreeze' food. we are headed up to the cabin on smarts mtn wednesday. from all the reports i hear, it is not supposed to even be freezing this year let alone deep. oh well, we can still 'go outside and play!'

make tracks...

while the snow is dry-er and fluffy-er!

wednesday, noon-ish, the snow started falling pretty seriously and school had been canceled due to the expected crazy commute home. sure enough, the expected delivered some crazy. for a good part of the afternoon, we were getting about two inches an hour. i packed up my skis and the flagging tape and headed over to lasalette, figuring i'd mark trails between turns. i got tapped again as 'trail boss' for the shaker museum's snowshoe fest on saturday. it's not a bad gig, with about 12 miles of total trail, in three flavors: green, yellow, and blue. i had recruited joni to help, so i picked her, skis, and the dog up just after 3:00.

by the time we had our skis on and headed up the trail, the snow was about more than 5 or 6 inches and accumulating. i convinced her to make the green loop going counterclockwise which would bring us down the steep side. i was pumped for that, a 3/4 mile downhill, and hoped i could get joni to tie the flagging tape while i just kept turning. things went well and we got to the top fairly quickly. i was going light on flagging given the easy to follow tracks this deep snow would afford. 

the trip down was as smooth as the proverbial baby's bottom and joni tied a good number of the flags, letting me cruise along. i couldn't remember when conditions were this good--and the storm was still improving them. by the time we made it back to the truck it was dark but i could tell joni was smiling as big as i was.

thursday, early-ish, the snow had mostly stopped, but school was on a delayed opening, so i headed up to cardigan. we had somewhere in the neighborhood of a foot of snow, and at least in the woods, it was fairly fluffy. the cold night had even dried it out more than what it fell as, and only 'light' winds, at least down low, left it unpacked. i stepped into my bindings and headed up about 7:30.

i semi-followed a set of tracks somebody must have made during the storm, but they were pretty buired. i took the ski trail sections up, even though who ever made the tracks had only come down that way. their pattern had me guessing, was it skip or josh. one section that was untracked made me think more josh as skip loved to hit that part. i kept to the ski trails as at over a foot of snow, a broken path would allow me to keep some speed. when i got to the 'east amc' arrow cairn, totally covered under a mound snow, the tracks stopped and turned back down. that made me think more skip as josh would most likely ski higher.

as i skied on by, headed over to our stash we call 'the chute' i thought whoever it was, i bet they were up here now--there was a foot and a half or more of untracked snow. of course as the trees got shorter, the wind picked up. it must have blown some over night as the drifts were waste high in spots. when i got to the top of the chute, the usual cornice at the top was substantial.

as i stripped off my skins contemplating dropping in, three birds flew by and perched up behind me. obviously birds are not uncommon up in the mountains, but these were not your ordinary winter-over species--they were robins! it was february 8th, the morning after a big storm and i was looking at three lively and plump harbingers of spring. i didn't have the camera out at the time, but they put a smile on my face that i was able capture a minute later. 

back in my ornithology days, i had learned that the reason the first robins of spring looked so hearty is that there is a north eastern sub-species, Turdus migratorius nigrideus, that is darker black above and has a brighter red breast. if you see them early, like on a cold february day, they could also seem a bit bigger as they would be somewhat fluffed up for warmth.









the skiing was wonderful, a tad slow up high, but sweet down in the bigger trees. i didn't stop for anything until i found another set of ski tracks just past the summer parking lot. they must have gotten spooked following me though as they turned around and went up the regular hiking trail. definitely not skip or josh, i figured they weren't local. 



sure enough when i got down to my truck there was one other car, with massachusetts plates. they'll figure it out, and if nothing else, they'll have a good time--the snow was great.




after a stop at the school to check in, i went back to lasalette to mark the yellow trail. long story short except for one huge blow-down, it went smoothly. so smoothly that at the top of the big hill, where everybody sleds, i tucked all the flagging gear in my pack, tightened up my boots, and took off for a downhill run. it was well worth it, even if i would have to come back the next day, with my chainsaw, to finish that last section of 1/2 mile of yellow, and the blue.

friday, mid morning-ish, after another check in at the school and grabbing the outdoor pursuit's snowshoes, i was back at the shaker museum. kyle, the museum education guy, told me that harrison was due around 10:00 to help. i showed kyle on the map where i would be cutting, put on snowshoes, grabbed my saw, and headed out. the tree ended up even 'huger' than it appeared--a whole second trunk was buried in the snow. i was glad i hadn't attacked things yesterday with my handsaw, it would have taken a couple of hours. with a chainsaw i had it done in under a 1/2 hour. i met harrison on the way down.

we stashed the saw at 'grand junction' and took off uphill for the blue trail. for about 3/4 of a mile we followed joni's and my faint ski track. when we got to where blue took off on its own, we got into the fresh, untracked deep stuff. i usually don't appreciate snowshoeing as much as skiing, but harrison is great partner to flag with. we broke out the trail all the way to blue's junction with yellow, maybe a mile and a half. harrison's phone brought us back to the other world, when betsy called to say she was done helping in the kitchen. we headed back the short way, skipping that pesky last yellow section. oh, well i'd get it saturday morning.

saturday, early-ish again, i got to the stone mill and finished the shoveling job where the plow guy had blocked the trailheads. just as i broke through the 8 foot pile, joni showed up--yeah! we tested out the new 'gap' and headed up with yellow flags to finish that last bit. since, she had snowshoes on and i had my skis, i sent her on to tramp out my ski tracks in the upper field. i tightened up my boots again and took a last fluffy run down the big hill. the weather was supposed to turn warm and possibly even rain, so why not turn while you could.

with everything laid out and tracked, i assigned harrison and betsy to guide at two certain key junctions and went to find olivia, to direct traffic at a third. she was in the main building, when i went in to grab a scone (i remember them as super delicious from past years). we went back to the mill, grabbed some snowshoes for olivia and i got into my skis. i told her she should also take one of the sleds up and we could find a few spots to glide down.

we made it up to the blue-yellow junction and kept going up beyond for a run before fest-ers came up and needed guiding. the snow was still cold and fast for me, though olivia had to keep the sled in tracked areas or she would bog down in the powder. i got down quick enough to take a series of olivia coming down the last steep section.



after the sledding, we did some guiding, drank some tea, did some more guiding, drank more tea, ate a granola bar, more guiding, more tea, more guiding...you get the picture. finally, we went up to take a last run and go down to lunch. on the way up the hill i spotted kristine, owen's wife, and she was pregnant--yeah! no owen, but kristine said his sisters were coming up shortly. and sure enough, margaret and hannah were snowshoe-jogging up the upper field. we had a great chat, until hannah's dog cocked his head in the classic canine "can't we go now?" pose.

olivia and i climbed up to the top of our private run and pointed things downhill. we didn't stop until we were practically down to the bottom, and lunch. before we got across the street, i saw my friends the seegers: jacob, nikeo, and lo-lo, out enjoying the snow. i fitted nikeo into a pair of little tyke snowshoes and he loved them. after that, it was time for a late-ish lunch. 

when i got back out, i helped close things down some, and told the others i would wait for the last few snowshoers that got a late start. harrison and betsy arranged to meet me the next morning at 9:30 to take down flagging. all in all it was a grand day out--in fact it was a grand four days out!

oh yeah, today, sunday--it wasn't all that bad, wet, but there's still plenty of snow. harrison and betsy picked up the trunk trail and green, while i ran over the yellow and blue. i did go up toward the potato field, but didn't see them. the rain was hard enough to chase me down. and now that i am dry and writing this, i hope they got home to dry off and warm up as well. i suppose, that's why people have phones...