yo-yoing back into winter!

this has been a crazy up and down winter--cold and snowing one day, warm and raining the next. definitely not conducive to backcountry skiing--my favorite 'going downhill fast' activity. 

but, last week a warm, wet snow of 6-7-8~ish inches, blanketed everything--again--laying down a solid base we could ski on without hitting rock--mostly. as the storm passed, the temperatures fell to seasonal levels and the bulk of snow froze up. the next couple of snows were much drier and a 3-4-5~ish fluffy inches accumulated on top of the crust. this put me back in a wintery mood--again--and i pulled my skis back out.

i can't remember last friday for the life of me, but i don't think i was out skiing. it was predicted to get warmer saturday morning. it was definitely raining by then, even though the thermometer was holding at 30°F. desperate to get in some winter activity before we lost our 3rd 'blanket', i called skip and proposed a ski.


him: it's raining!

me: it's supposed to change to snow...

him: when? it's lunch-o-clock you know.

me: i realize. by the time you eat and we gain a little elevation it will be snow...i hope.

him: ok.

me: shaker wildlife management area or the road up to mowgli and firescrew?

him: firescrew! it will be snowier!

me: good choice. you eat. i'll be over.

sure enough, about an hour later, + a 1000 ft, that is a smile on a mostly dry skip as we headed up the mowgli trail toward firescrew. it was snowing!


conditions were good for going up, read we didn't need to hassle with skins. but as we came to a couple of steeper sections i started wondering aloud. this might get tricky going down, do you want to turn around here? i actually wrote about it in ttyol last sunday.

"skip and i kept going higher and higher on a narrower and narrower, steeper and steeper trail. ...the snow was thick & heavy, ie wicked hard to turn in, at least smoothly. i dropped a few hints that perhaps we should turn around here...or here...or maybe here. he kept mentioning something about it "leveling off" and "let's make this a tour." i guess i'm an easy sell. thank god for that knee high blowdown signaling further progress would be downright dangerous on a decent.

as we locked down boots and bindings and looked downhill, i thought i heard skip agree that maybe we shouldn't have come so high up. ...i quickly calculated that taking any more of [time] before dropping in would only [help] me...visualize disaster. at that thought, i pointed my tips down the fall line."

back out at the road, i found a vantage point to practice my recent fascination with series shots--the kind you can click on and toggle through like a flip book.



yeah, i know, i need a lot more practice. but despite the old 'camera' camera, we had a grand day going outside and playing! nobody melted--or bashed any trees either, hop turning though the thick, cement-like snow.

and speaking of practice, pam and i looped around our snowshoe trail sunday at sunset. this time i used her phone camera. the quicker recovery time, makes for a much 'neater' series.





the two series above are uncropped. the one below i cropped to look like she is entering and leaving the frame. click and toggle through--it's fun.



the sun setting over moose mountain as we headed back to the house, gave us quite a show--

--and made a strange roof melt sculpture as well. it was definitely another grand day, outside and playing! plus, there was a bonus in the forecast for some cold and snow tuesday and wednesday!!

and snow it did! on tuesday, it was a mostly all day event giving us 4-5-6~ish inches. the video above is the first minute of my commute. on the way home, i to clamber up onto the snow bank up against the bridge railing, hoping i wouldn't fall over into the river, while two plow trucks passed each other on the road. i didn't take a video. on our way to bed, we made a plan to get out on the snowshoe loop the next morning, before we went into work.


on wednesday, after our glorious morning loop with tuesday's snows slowing 'melting' off the trees, we got another 6-7-8~ish inches. only instead of tuesday's gentle all day snow, it came in two heavy squalls. proverbial, dumps!


the first, an honest to goodness whiteout, started soon after school let out and pam was driving back to work from the dentist--rather, trying to. the second, intensified a couple hours later, just after pam canceled her evening writing group and was again driving, this time home. the roads were horrendous.


on my walk home--i managed to time that between the heaviest snows--i passed a mile long line of cars waiting for a tow truck to pull a car out of the ditch. for me, that made getting across the bridge easy, but the police/fire traffic guy strongly suggested i walk home via goose pond road. for pam, the line was still there two hours later, and the police/fire traffic people were letting one car at a time go up the hill. she took goose pond road as well.


what made for terrible driving wednesday evening, gave us a thursday of heavenly powder. it was so good, i went out twice. the first trip was over to the shaker wildlife management area with a former student, justin, on break from college.


we had a grand tour, avoiding the glades and the steepest of the trails over there, as justin's gear was extra 'light'--read skate ski boots and fairly skinny skis. there is a lot to ski, no matter what you are looking for.


the day was still cold, even with the sun up high in a bluebird sky. but beautiful would have been an understatement given the snow conditions.


we had talked about hiking up cardigan to catch the sunset-moonrise after skiing, but after almost three hours in the shaker hills justin let his brother dirk, use the car to get to ski practice. i didn't mind as i could always go out the kitchen door and head up over town hill.


after a little snack and some tea, still hot in the thermos, i geared up again and went out. passing through the neighbor's stone wall 'gate' i built two years ago, i picked up a mostly filled-in snowshoe track neighbor bob must have made wednesday morning--before the squalls. he looped at the top of the hill, but i kept on and went down the east side, past the truck, over the 'porky trail', down my favorite pitch, down the smaller 'stone wall' pitch, through the 'pine gate' to hall road.



porky track's on the left, and koby tracks on the right. i discovered the lovely little critter hole in the middle, at the stone wall before 'pine gate'.

the trip back up the hill and down the west side, was sublime. coming out of the woods into the neighbor's field, i saw a tell tale white plume of snow blower and skied down to say hi to neighbor bob. he didn't see me until i got in front of his blower chute--"i'm hunting for powder!" we had a good chat, mostly on how sweet the snow up the hill was, with only a brief mention of the warm and rain forecasted for the weekend.

yuck, more yo-yoing! (if you look up yo-yoing in the urban dictionary, i am referencing the #2 definition.) if this is to be our winter weather of the future--my efforts to get pam to move north have not been successful--it is well we have days like wednesday to lift our winter loving spirits. going out to play! in such fluff is always good for a 'chilly' smile.

happy new day--

--year, oh and decade!

new year's day--like any of the other 364--is always a good day to go outside and play! pam and i decided a hike out the kitchen door, up town hill, and down to the marsh at the beaver dam would start these new times off right. as we left the drive, pam turned and grabbed a picture of the sun and shade on the house.

the snow from the last couple days has given us a prime base and i was even tempted to go back and grab my skis. instead, we made it a together hike, stopping now and again to take pictures.




the sun was nice and warm, especially climbing. not long after this pam took off her jacket. not that you can see all that clearly, but the shadow shows mine already tied around my waste, with my hat and mittens in the pockets.


not that it surprised us, but it was really beautiful in the woods. it also was no surprise that the rest of the world was still out there when just after crossing the 'porky track', pam's phone buzzed in my pocket. it was a text from hannah--thanking her for the birthday wish. she and soy had just gotten home from their annual sunrise trip to their own beauty spot--the ocean.

obviously the weather is different down on the cape. but, while i am a dedicated snow person, all that sand looks pretty inviting. it reminds me of the early morning romps on popham beach.


we walked all the way down to the marshy area just past the beaver dam. i took pam's phone back and got a picture--complete with a finger in the frame. maybe it's just me, but i see some similarity in the textures and colors between pictures.

on the loop back we passed through the new opening we cleared on the weekend. pam had never used a two person saw, but in two cuts, she came into her own. the cut on the left only took us about a minute.

moving the cut section took a lot more time than sawing through it. the tree was big enough with plenty of branches propping it up or planting it firmly in the ground.

it's out of the way now and through the clearing, you get up to my two favorite pitches to ski. i sped to the top of the higher section and set up to take a series of pam powering up. it makes a fun little 'flip book'--click on the first one and toggle through them!





the cell tower seemed perfectly aligned from this vantage, as close to the spot we got hannah's text going out, we now got one from sadila, coming back. she and otavio had gone out for their own morning hike in a local park.

the pond is close to where they kayak and swim in warmer times. again, it makes a wonderful frozen image with its textures and colors.

like reception on the hill, the families' collective 'eye' seemed well aligned this new year's day!






the only thing better than hearing of the kiddos' adventures is actually being on one with them. thankfully, that happens enough despite our being a somewhat spread out. going outside to play! makes us all smile!!

holiday gatherings

thanksgiving, hanukka, christmas, new years--all common holidays to get together with family and friends. a time to look back on the past, look around at the present, and look ahead to the future--it's one of "the most wonderful time[s] of the year!"

this past summer, simon moved back to the east coast. one benefit, he gets back to canaan a good deal more than when he lived in boulder. and now on the cape, he's only twenty or so minutes from sawyer and hannah. i am down there some and can use that to see even more of him.


last time i was down, soy and i took advantage of that, and went over to his place for a delicious supper. i recruited him as an enthusiastic rider of NERT--new england roundabout tour--circumnavigating each of the six new england states next year. adventuring with si is always fun! he shows up in multiple goap! posts.

fun and si's organization was playing big this vacation. dropping a braid of holiday bread off at the pendelton house, soy and i sat for some tea and a few rounds of bananagrams. si inquired if i would be interested in hiking moosilauke the next day. i was in, but he would have to pick me up as sadie has my truck.

when i called the next morning to confirm my reservation, the plan for moosilauke had moved to cardigan, and the handful of people had doubled. by the time he picked me up, he was asking me to bring all my extra micro spikes--just in case. when we got up to the winter parking lot, all kinds of people popped out of their cars waving hi. one subaru wagon, a veritable 'clown car', even had two squeezed into the way back.

for a final count of eleven people, it didn't take us all that long to gear up and start off. not everybody was of si's age and fitness level, so we spread out into little pods and started sharing our stories. we gathered together again next to the shelter at the summer parking lot and de-layered some before hitting the trail.


where west ridge and south ridge trails split, we decided to loop up the steeper, icy south ridge and down the regular west ridge. my knees would appreciate that.

a bit under the big ice flow, si and i stopped to cut out a huge pine that had fallen squarely across the trail. if we did it right, we could make one cut and roll it to the edge of the trail. it was large enough that even that would still take a while.

switching out when our spm--strokes per minute--dropped, we had the log on the ground and moved downhill, off trail in short order. it was not too long before we caught up with the troops negotiating the ice fall.


i always enjoy this section of the trail--as long as i am hiking up! (goap! has a few pictures from last winter...) various brands of spikes folks had afoot, and their confidence on ice, made for an interesting crossing at the bottom flow. the picture here has katie lending a hand through the middle. several of the group, bypassed it all together meandering up a less icy, but steep, off trail route.


at the top of the ice, two of the group noticed they each had one spike on backwards. when they turned it around, they affirmed that made for much better traction! 


on the ridge part of the south ridge trail, you get a prime view of the summit of cardigan as well as the high points along the spine going south and east, over orange--or gilman--mountain. the last bit of our path to the summit, goes up the steep granite on the east side.


up at the summit, we gathered the troops below the tower. read from left to right, according to noses: diane, creek, simon, devon, claire, ruggen, barbara, katie, mozelle, molly, david.

at one point, simon mentioned that he had never stayed up top for as long as we were now. i could have reminded him of the hours watching the meteor shower once, hanging out post jell-o-thon races, or the MOC overnight we had up there--but it was getting cold standing around in the wind. we headed down.

for those of us who had removed our spikes going up the south ridge granite slabs, we stopped above 'turn around rock' on west ridge and remounted them. as they say in some circles, it was all 'downhill' from there. 

just above the waterfall, simon steered most down the ski trail, while i took ruggen and katie to the top of the waterfall. with wide grins and a few whoops, they started lowering themselves over the edge, using anything available for hand holds. the rest of us went down what i call the winter cut off and met everyone back on the trail.

after a few more splittings, we regrouped at the summer parking lot and took off down the road en masse, only to string out again relative to our individual speeds, or in my case good conversation and as self-appointed caboose. 







you can see in the faces, that it was a grand day to go outside and play! as a bonus, the younger folks planned to meet at simon's, eat some more, and play some indoors!!

bringing home the tree

today was the shortest day of the year, still four days ahead of christmas, perfect timing to go outside and cut the traditional tree!

pam and i, sans enfants this year, went out in our annual search for the christmas tree. with fewer people looking, that meant less discussion as to the relative merits of various possible trees. when the section you will be using is 30, 40, or more feet above your head, real aesthetic evaluation is subjective at best. "what about this, that, or the other one?" is the phrase for the day.

given that, we turned into the field heading toward pam's snowshoe loop, as opposed to up town hill way, where we got the last couple years' trees. during fall trail work, pam had spotted some possibilities along the stone wall at the far end of the field, a ways into the woods. we ruled out a few as we went along, "...too tall,  ...too thin, ...too many bare spots." finally, sure enough, right at the old barb wire over the stone wall, there were a couple trees that were, "just right". or at least only 20' up, they seemed like they would be.

with not too much debate, i chose the her original, chopped off the lower dead branches in the way, notched the trunk where i wanted it to fall, and sawed the back side. 'timber'--it went right where i wanted it to. 

i cut up the trunk some and moved it off the wall, to stay with the logger's rule--nothing left off the ground higher than 3'. a last cut gave us about 10-11'  off the top to take back to the house for final trimming. it looked a step above the usual 'charlie browner' we have been known to get, and felt good up on my shoulder.

good on the shoulder was welcome, as the walk back to the house was much longer than last year. i wasn't in any pain though, and only had to switch sides once, that mainly because my control hand got a bit cold up above the heart steadying the load.

back at the kitchen porch, a couple of quick measurements suggested the final trimming would not be as contentious as it can sometimes get. with the stand and ceiling height, we have just under 8' to work with. the branches also seemed more tame this year, not so over grown. i can be a bit ruthless with the clippers which always brings out pam's "nooo, nooo--stop!" 

cut close to length and the centering hole drilled, i took it inside and stuck it into the stand. there was one low branch that if the clippers had been in hand, would have felt the cut. instead, i just jammed it down, held it plumb as my eye could see, and tightened the stays. a quick check by pam and a minor adjustment was all it needed before the water was poured. i strung the lights and pam hung the ornaments. 

the full effect is definitely christmas-y. pam's instagram post already has several likes. even with no presents below, it puts me in the spirit--sort of. i am thankful that pam took her christmas music out to the kitchen. and even though i can still hear it, i am smiling. it was a great day to 'go outside and play!'