skiing in the 'north country' & birding on 'the cape'

february vacation, was well timed for a mid-week snow storm, followed by clear cold weather--as opposed to warmer, rainy days as seem to be so popular this winter.

wednesday the 19th, i met up with adam and we drove up to the glenn cliff side of mt moosilauke to check out the slides he had been to last winter. we found a parking spot on the logging road and started gearing up when a plow truck came out the road and asked us to move to a spot he would snuff out for us on the main road. adam already had his ski boots on and not wanting to take them off noted, "this ought to be fun" as he jumped back in the driver's seat.

well parked, we grabbed our skis and tracked down the freshly plowed logging road to the tunnel brook south trailhead. interestingly, on the south side of the notch we were skiing up to, we would be following slide brook. tunnel brook actually flowed the other way, toward the north trailhead.

no matter, the two brooks meet at a series of beaver ponds at the height of land, below a group of slides on moosilauke's southern flank to one side, and three large clear patches in the other direction. there wasn't enough snow in any of them.

supposedly there was another possible--read skiable--line on the other side of a ridge on moose. we skied along the beaver ponds hoping for a look, but ran into so much downed timber we abandoned the quest. all the slides we could see had far too little coverage to devote any effort to get to another one.

the trail on the map above goes all the way up to moosilauke's summit. we made it to the ponds and then a ways up toward the slides on the left below. there was plenty of snow in the woods to find a line back down through the trees.

we snapped a few photos on the way up as well. 

my favorite shot was one adam took up at one of the beaver ponds and edited to black and white. it reminds me of skiing up in the sierras with john muir and ansel adams.

after our little glade adventure, we joined back up with the trail and pretty much bombed down to the road. there were a few deep little cuts with open water that had to be negotiated with some finesse, but it was definitely faster with a gravity assist.

back at the truck, we were both smiling, despite not skiing any of the slides. if we get a bunch of march or april snows, we promised we'd be back.

thursday the 20th, was another cold, sunny day so i took my skis with me to work and snuck out early in the afternoon. i headed for the shaker wildlife management area and was on my skis 15 minutes later, pointed toward the potato run to test the snow. it was excellent--fast but not furious. 

i was playing the edges going down and using the middle--with at least one snowshoer track--going up. i have a couple of favorite rock launches and side 'walls' i use to try for some air time. with good speed, like today, it gets me excited.

when i turned to go back up for a second run, i started debating between little sherbie & the glades--which one would be more filled in than the last time when both were so sketchy. when i got to the glades turn off, there was a skin track somebody made the day before. with a set of dog prints following behind, i was guessing dick and bennie. my thought was, if it was good enough for them, it would work for me. i turned and followed them.

after locking down, i snapped a smile before pointing down dick's trail. as mentioned it was plenty fast, which made for quick decisions on when and where to turn. at one point i went left to avoid a new snaggle of blowdowns and the big birch i never cut out as it could be skied over with enough snow and some packing.


zigging left took me toward the ravine and lots more fallen timber so i zagged back right around a big oak--directly into a tangle of bushes and branches. i put up my arms and poles, closed my eyes, and plowed through.


out the other side, still with speed, i angled back toward dick's ski tracks and bennie's paw line--i should note that bennie's path was bang on the glade's trail while dick and i were off a good deal. i will also confess that i could feel a gash across the top of my cheek. but, in the moment, with further trees to avoid, i was having fun weaving them--at speed.


i did finally stop just above a huge blow down that pushed dick's tracks into the thicker trees. i took an image looking back up hill showing our relative speeds, today's fast sweeping turn compared to yesterday's slow, fall line cranks.



when i put the camera back in my pocket, i grabbed a handful of snow and pressed it to my cheek. as i expected, it came away bloody. that wasn't a big deal as i was mostly thinking about how wonderful the rest of the glades would be, and equally, the focus i would need to avoid any further injuries.

i was well rewarded and as i popped off the stone wall at the very bottom, rejoining the main trail, skip's "best skiing ever!" came to mind. by the time i loaded my gear into the truck, i had mostly forgotten the cheek. stopping into drummond custom cycles, robbie greeted me with "koby, your face is really bleeding." i was hoping it looked worse than it was, and would clean up--it did ok. i kept my smile!

friday the 21st, dawned clear an very cold, -16°F, which sort of put a damper on going back out for another early whack at it. pam and i were heading to the cape and wanted to leave 9:30~ish--it would not be warm even by then and besides i had to still pack. i bagged the skis and packed my binoculars for some birding with soy and han.


their house is right on the large hamblin tidal pond in mashpee with plenty of water bird activity to supplement feeder action right off their porch. it was going to be good weekend.


saturday the 22nd,  after a leisurely breakfast, we headed out for the day. at some point we wanted to get to the beach in sandwich. we brought along the binos to spot some ocean species. the closer to the water we got, the windier it was. we did see some new birds though--brandts and eiders. and we got a great set of pictures of me getting 'blown away' that would make a fine series:




sunday the 23rd, before heading back north, we headed out for a last walk through the woods on will's work road out to waquoit bay. i was hoping to add a couple of woodpeckers. that happened and we also saw a harrier and some terns--wether they were common or forster's we can only speculate--way across the inlet between cassie's beach and south cape beach.

it was a great trip, seeing hannah and sawyer and lots of birds--over 30 species. it was a perfect way to end a week of going outside and playing! there were smiles all around, north & south.

ps--simon, i hope your trip up from the cape was as rewarding as ours down and you got at least one good run in! -- maybe even saw a bird or two...

some fun in the 'north country'

if you live in a place with no snow on the ground, pack up the kids, a bunch of winter gear, and head up to the north country. it's always fun to get outdoors and enjoy the snow--before it gets washed away by another rain event.

much of massachusetts is beset with bare ground. when my friend kelly heard we had a bit of snow up here, she made a plan for a visit when the kids had their school vacation. david was able to come along having presidents' day free. i suggested they bring sleds.

last thursday it was still warm~ish, so i went up and built up some banked turns in the s-curves on the town hill right of way. i figured i would build a run up before things froze up. temps were forecasted to drop well below zero the next couple of nights. on saturday when i woke up, it was 16-17°F below. a last minute suggestion to the guests was to bring plenty of warm clothes. when they rolled in just before dinner, they had plenty snow suits, mittens, hats, jackets... and a couple of sleds--one of them a covered inner tube! tomorrow was looking pretty good!!



sunday dawned early, not as early as the kiddos woke up, but definitely warmer than saturday morning. a few pancakes apiece later, after a good deal of excitement dressing for outdoors, dave and the girls and i were trooping into the field to give that a try first. after a slow run, we opted to head up town hill to the steep. it was a bit more of a walk than into the field, and tired out the shortest legs. no problem, they took a short nap.

as soon as they woke up, we got the sleds sliding and didn't stop. in fact, the runs got so fast that it was hard to stop, even if you wanted to!


runs got faster and faster, with several of them ending up jumping the bank i had built up and shooting off into the woods. those that stayed on and made it around the corner had to deal with a clump of trees, island-ed between a split in the trail. there were several confrontations where the tree, small as it was, turned out the winner. we are still hoping kelly's back suffers no long term affects.

we came back in for lunch and to hang all the outerwear over the drying rack, strategically placed over the heating register. after lunch, four of us went back out, headed 'over the river and through the woods'. we were going to the school as opposed to grandmother's house. walking over a frozen river was a both exciting and a little anxiety producing. i convinced them that if anybody fell in it would be me--i was the heaviest.


after a tour of the new parts of the school, including a nostalgic stop at the old room kelly taught in, we headed back home. on the way across the middle school playground we found three 'zipfy sleds' perched at the top of an icy hill.


after two or three runs, eva and tatum asked if we could take them home. since it was vacation week and no one would be using them, i said sure--i could bring them back after they went back home.


they were pretty excited to try them out, back at the house. that, and the barred owl that flew and perched in front of us, made for a 'whine free' return hike. given all the walking we had done that day, the stamina of those with the short legs was impressive.

monday morning, after another pancake breakfast, we were dressed and outside just after 8:00a. we had some really excellent runs-- a few of which made it onto film. the first one with each of the three girls on a zipfy.

dave, riding backwards on the tube, took a great video of tatum, framed between his boots, hanging onto the leash.

dave trusted me with his new~ish phone and i took one of the whole family.

we kept at it until charlotte bashed her nose. full disclosure, i was pulling the tube at the time and swinging it around the car when it hit the snow bank and careened her nose into the bumper. she was a trooper and soon enough we all went in for snacks and some packing up.



tatum, eva, and i were back out for a little more before the final packing up and departure. it was worth every run. dave's smile was evidence of how much fun it is to 'go outside and play!' if we keep the cold and snow, i predict that the gang will be back up for more--especially if the ground stays bare down south.

currently, it is snowing! not raining!!

and yes, given the ups and downs of this winter temp-wise, that is indeed a good thing.

last week, thursday: it had been snowing most of the night and 6-8~ish inches of fresh, wet, but fresh snow, lay atop what i have been lamenting all winter as a sketchy base. area schools were all shuttered, so i called skip and arranged for him to stop in, with his skis, on his way home from the dentist. considering myself lucky that my teeth cleaning wasn't until tomorrow--post a forecasted heavy rain--i decided to go scout out conditions first. 

in no time i was over to the shaker wildlife management area clicking into my skis and sliding them up the trail. as i went along feeling some chunkiness underfoot, i devised a plan to test the 'potato run' first and depending on those results, head for either the 'little sherbie' or the 'glades'. 

the potato was fine, fast enough to be fun, but not at all furious. on and just off the main trail, coverage was adequate and there was enough base to keep things running smooth. every once in a while, turning on trail, i could definitely feel that frozen crunchiness where people had made tracks in their boots and it had frozen. staying in the fall line caused no problem, so on the way back up i weighed the choice: fast through the untracked trees, or fast down a potentially tracked road.

given the crazy run through the 'glades' last week, i made the choice to go down the road we call the 'little sherbie'. in spite of knowing better, i didn't expect things would get dangerous. about half way down when i started carving across the fall line to dump speed, i started thinking damn, this is whacked. with every turn, the frozen chunk took hold of my edges and only let go reluctantly, under brute force. it was an exciting descent.

only, when i got back home and skip showed up, he heard the story and chose to avoid any 'edgy' run, as well as the rain that was starting to fall. he went home. i went up town hill and made a last run for the day, zipping up & down, dooryard to dooryard--wet, but smiling.

friday morning: it was pretty depressing hearing rain hit the roof all night. i had made a date to hike cardigan with lisa and maybe dick, but after scraping a 1/4" of ice off pam's car and my truck windows, i wondered if i would see anybody. they both showed and brought benny too!


on the way up, rain kept falling, as frozen pellets, as super wet snow/drops. a front was due to blow in and drop temps. i was predicting we would see the precip turn to pure snow sooner or later--we were all hoping for sooner. 


up above treeline, the a cold wind started blow the wet and clouds into our faces. lisa's and dick's snow shoes kept them afloat, while had to pick my path carefully to keep from sinking into the soft snow below a 1/2" inch layer of ice. i had been thinking of bringing my skis up, but the solid crust made that idea seem ridiculous. dick called it "ankle breaking conditions"! none of us felt a need to summit, so we took a couple of pics at the quarter pipe rock and turned down. 




on the way down, the precip changed to all snow and got heavier and heavier, though back in the trees, without the wind, it was really pretty. by the time we got to the vehicles, we were all smiling.

saturday morning: the sun was shining brightly on the 3-4~ish inches of fresh powdery snow that the cold had wrung out of the clouds when the front blew through overnight. i was scheduled to guide snowshoe hikes over at swma at 1:00 and 3:00. two people, sharon and stu, showed up and we headed out. as we walked across the highway and went into the woods, i queried them some to get an idea of where to lead. 













they seemed game for just about anything, so i took them up the 'potato run' and turned up toward 'lost lake'--now with years of eutrophication, was barely a tiny pond. the stone dam though was still somewhat visible and offers a good path to walk over and get a 'local' view, as well as a picture.

sharon was really pleased coming down through the 'glades' but glad to be on snowshoes as opposed to skis. with the crazy, breakable crust just below the surface, i had to agree with her. given a decent snowfall, with no rain involved, i would certainly be back--with just as big a smile!



sunday morning: pam and i woke to another sunny day and after breakfast, we headed up town hill to stomp a trail through the crust. as i trailed behind the yellow jacket, i thought the snow in the trees, made for a nice picture especially with brilliant blue sky in the background.

we trooped up and over the other side and went on to the marsh. instead of stopping at our usual spot, the tiny beaver dam at the bottom of the road, i cut across the marsh over to the large damn and stopped for a picture.

with the nh primary in two days, pam had the clever idea we should track out a huge "WARREN FOR PRESIDENT" message in the white expanse of the marsh. i might have considered it if her name been shorter or more than just local pilots and birds been able to view it. for the sake of helping a women get elected, i should have been more motivated, and just stomped out "WARREN". anybody who actually saw it would have gotten the message.

someday, when i have something important to say--like 'go outside and play!'--i'll go back and stomp... until then, i am headed out to enjoy the big fluffy flakes of snow which are still falling and actually starting to bury last week's crust. and oh, did i mention, it is not raining?!

a fun five days--before some more yo-yoing!

yes!--i did ski five days in a row, but then it was back to the yo-yoing of winter weather.

thursday, january the 16th: it had been wet snowing all morning. at noon, i figured, better go out and enjoy it while it lasts. i loaded up and went toward the shaker hills. it was indeed wet, sticky enough--almost too much so--that i could scale--no skins needed--up the steeper 'little sherbie'. i was planning to turn around and going down my up, but the stickyness gave me the whacky idea that the 'glades' would be just about right.



by the time i got to the cutoff i was plenty warm, only a little wet, and smiling about that decision. it was still snowing some, so i wasn't even thinking about the minimal cover, from last week's big melt down. how bad could it be?turns out, fairly bad, though that's a relative term. see the previous post for pictures and details.


friday, the 17th: back to the shaker hills. the snow, still mighty thin, was indeed all dried out and fast. i made two loops, the 'little sherbie' and the main trail coming down from the 'potato field'. that second one, being a main trail and less steep, had seen some traffic.  a wide set of ski tracks turning every few feet, made me smile. who ever it was, i nicknamed mr/ms wiggle, for the obvious moves their butt would have been making had i been there to see it.

saturday, the 18th: having exhausted the trails of coverage over at the swma, i stayed close to home and skied up town hill. the run down the east side was indeed fast and took all my attention to avoid rocks and trees. coming down the west side to the house was wicked sweet, with plenty of variation available. when i got down to the house it was starting to snow as well. we were forecasted to get 5-7~ish inches of snow rather than an inch of rain!

sunday, the 19th: it was still spitting snow when i got out of bed, but i could see patches blue now and again as the clouds scudded by. i had arranged with cory to go up to his new house and adventure out his back door. i packed up and was in the truck heading to pomfret by 7:00a. when i got to cory's, the blue patches were getting bigger and the fresh powder on the hills looked very inviting.

cory must have been out shoveling early too as his driveway was also inviting. after a quick tour of all the new work he had gotten done inside, we booted up skied away outside. i had lent him my old tele gear and this trip was supposed to be a learning day. we started things off on a slight pitch and he was linking some turns. then when i came back from a top to bottom run, he was limping. he had tweaked his knee bad enough to hurt and switch us into touring mode.


cruising through the fields and into the woods seemed doable until we got to a steep sugar road with a downed pine sticking into the trail. cory decided to cut that out while i kept on to the top of that section and skied back down.


that worked out well enough, though even with the 5-7~ish inches of new snow, coverage was still thin. we opted to just head back and hit the hill behind his place.



that turned out to be a good idea as cory's knee was not getting any better. i got in a good set of turns until slowing down at the bottom i turned into some small brush and caught my edge. that easily tripped me up. as i was going over, i remember thinking about my knees--fortunately, i got back upright and unhurt. we were both smiling as we stomped off our boots and went inside.

monday, the 20th: it was martin luther king jr. day so skip had no school. i got over to his house and we went off to mt carr, thinking most likely nobody had skied that yet. surprise surprise, when we pulled up to the end of the road, a very big grapple skidder was dragging logs about a 10 acre landing. another sawyer was working a 'pincher' on the end of a long arm, moving huge logs into a cutoff saw. it was quite an operation, smack dab in the middle of the field we normal ski through.

we got our boots on and walked past the logging action to the ski trail where it enters the woods. no surprise, with all that activity, the snow was untracked. we clicked into the skis and slid away from all the noise.



maybe 2/3s of the way to where we usually turn, we stopped to cut out a major blowdown--we had both our saws working. the drainages, usually buried with snow, were getting more and more rocky~ish and would be a problem coming down with speed. i was pushing skip to consider losing the 'fun factor' if we didn't turn early. after about a 100 yards and three 'bumpy' drainages, he conceded. i think he was hungry. before he even took skins off, he was chowing down his sandwich.

i took off and made it through the rockiest of the washes without too much contact. skip was not quite as lucky. but eventually he made it down to me. i was filming as he skied by.

when he finally stopped, he took one of me going past him. just to be clear, that was the videographer shaking, not the earth!

it's a longstanding joke that skip's camera skills are sketchy at best. when i first saw this one, i thought he might actually need medical assistance. he was saying something about being hungry. i took out some stills to build a series. someday i am going to gather some of skip's "best videos ever!"




the rest of the slide out, was fairly smooth and uneventful. the turns got more and more mellow, until basically you'd ride one ski in the track, one off in the fluff, reverse, and repeat--sort of pretending to be turning. that brought us back to the log landing and the truck--with smiles!

and after i shared my pizza with him, skip agreed that it had been a pretty fine day to 'go outside and play!' i am happy to report that he was not shaking at all on the drive home.

ps--saturday, the 25th: .7 inches of rain! midweek: back below zero °F!!

more yo-yoing!

and at least a few of days, winter is again involved--for which i am grateful.

in my last yo-yoing post, i left off with a forecast of "warm and rain" as justin and i were skiing about the swma at a good clip, just to stay warm. from the glorious sun but downright chilly low teens of that adventure it did indeed warm, into the damned balmy 50s! and it rained close to an inch over the weekend. a change of 40° is something you notice along with the ice that forms from a 'big melt'.

on friday, as the thaw started, pam and i trucked up and over town hill, she on snowshoes and me-s on skis! to say it was sticky was an understatement. i distracted myself with trying out her phone's pan mode, shooting for a caterpillar effect. i got mixed results, but this one was close. i especially like the 'missing' body up at the front of the line.

we were headed down to the beaver dam where i took the 'thumby' in the 'happy new day' post--i avoided my phalanges in this one. the snow coverage was still looking significant, but it was not to last.

nor was it fast skiing. going uphill was right this side of maddening. while sometimes i could kick slide my skis to dump the huge clump of snow sticking to the bottom, it was not a sure thing, and it was way more work than i was looking to do. the only positive was my favorite short pitch was slow enough that pam was able to get a video.

saturday was a washout. i got in a good amount of reading--ironically getting to the part on new orleans' crazy flooding with katrina in sarah broom's outstanding memoir the yellow house.

sunday, i convinced skip we should run up cardigan without skis, as opposed to his idea to skin up and ski down the 'shuttered' whaleback. with all the rain and melt water, the ice was sure to be building on the shady parts of the trail. like at the bottom of that steep section on south ridge.



for those who follow goap! religiously--and have a good memory--'just another sunny day' posted last march captured a very similar moment. while it was "windy" that day too, it was probably not blowing like it was when we summited sunday. the two other hikers snugged into the lee side of the tower structure--former students and at least diane, featured now and again in goap!--greeted skip and i excitedly. the wind was making quite a racket blowing over things and when we dug out the anemometer, john predicted in the 50s.

we took the gauge around the corner and saw it top out, with gusts above the 50mph reading. had i been with it, i would have taken a picture of skip 'leaning into' the blasts at some pretty low angles. i did remember to snap a memory of the three before we took off downhill.

at turn around rock we put the micro-spikes back on and made a quick decent stopping only to disrobe some when we got out of the wind. oh and one other time on an upper portion of the ski trail where the ice always builds. it was a good chance for me to practice my recent obsession with taking photo series--with the less than ideal camera again.



amazingly, about 100 yards below this section, skip stopped and pointed out how the deep the snow was--easily up to our wastes.

monday and tuesday remained mild enough, and with partial sun, the snow coverage fell way back. at some point on wednesday though it went cold enough again to start snowing. that lasted through the night and was 5-6-7~ish inches thursday morning. the 'cold enough' to snow all night meant school was on a delayed opening schedule to let the plows clean up somewhat. it had to be tough to move, as it was some of the best packing snow i have ever made into a snowball. when i went by the high school they were mostly done as students were starting to arrive.

i was headed over to the shaker hills thinking that area would have enough coverage to not scrape off the bottoms of my skis. and it did, barely, and at that clumpiest of temperatures. it was a slog going up, but i didn't have to use skins.

unaware of what might be on our as yet un-skied 'glade' section, i locked things down and pointed the tips into the fall line winding through the trees. it was an adventure. not quite fast but even so, nearly furious with all the debris, as yet uncovered. i took off into the woods a couple times to avoid some major blowdowns that i would have to bring skip along to help clear out.

at the bottom, i opted to park the boards for the coming cold and wind. i figured that the snow would completely dry out and friday, might be almost heavenly. without snow, the coverage would still be thin, but in a yo-yoing season, beggars can't be choosers! that and i figured i would stop in at drummond's and help them set up for their yearly party.

i had brought along a telemark kit for cory too, in hopes that this weekend we would get the promised snow. the skis were my old karhu guides and would need inserts to keep the bindings on, but i figured we could get that done before sunday--our planned outing.

on friday, we woke to below~ish 0°F and some stiff winds. after breakfast and helping pam sweep & scrape her car getting her off for the day, i loaded the skis back into the truck and went over to the shaker hills again. the snow was magically fluffy powder again and very enjoyable to ski through, albeit 'thin'. a long~ish run from the potato field down was smooth and quick so a trip back up to try the 'little sherbie' was in order. i was rewarded, or at least i thought so. it was fun rushing by my yesterday's going-up tracks.




all in all, even with the radical up and down of temps and snow coverage, it has been a fine time to 'go outside and play!' i try and wear a smile no matter the weather.

ps--time to stop here, and gear up for a quick run up town hill with pam. later!