more snow, more rain, deep cold, unusual warm, dead calm, extreme wind...a new england winter!

no lie, it has been a roller coaster ride of a winter. while i am not holding my breath, i am hoping for one more good snow storm--hey it's only halfway through march!

since i last posted at the start of february, i have had all kinds of adventures, solo, with pam, with friends, with former MOC students, on snow, on ice, in frigid cold, in downright balmy sunshine, and just today, a wicked west wind. this past week has seen temps swing from below zero, to above fifty, to back into single numbers. three days of warm and sunny, laid all the shovels down again that had been standing for weeks after a couple of good snows in february and a heavy-wet~ish one in march.

some highlights: skiing cardigan 3 or 4 times, once from the chute at dawn after 6 inches of fresh fluff; sledding the same route at least three times, once in powder with olivia; a late afternoon--with a finish in the dark--ski up south peak on moose mtn with justin and olivia; skiing over at the shaker wildlife management area a good number of times solo and once with skip where we met up with dick on a second run; at least a dozen runs up and down town hill in some sweet fresh snows, once with susan and pam; dozens of trips around pam's loop, a couple of them with pam joining me on skis; some stunning sunsets from a number of views; hiking cardigan for more views, one at sunset; socially spaced, outdoor meetup for hot cider and a bernie pose...

looking up, a socked in summit on cardigan, and down the chute, a tiny patch of early light in the valley.

olivia gearing up for a morning sled run on cardigan and then an evening run with justin over on moose mountain.

skip ready to point them down over at the swma and susan's and my ski tracks and pam's snowshoes up on townhill.

the truck, mid trail up on the east side of town hill with the second shot taken out of the windshield.

pam skiing the loop up by where she took this wonderful sunset shot--red at night skiers' delight!

atop cardigan at sunset and with hannah, pam, karen, and bill for hot cider on a cold afternoon.

a snow-bernie inspiration and another sunset out over the garden and moose mtn...

today, i took the opportunity of a frozen track to hike up town hill to the wolf pine at the height of land. my goal was to climb as high as possible--a la a younger sawyer--and tie a white flag to a branch. if we remember to take binoculars with us next time we hike south peak on moose mtn, i was thinking we could get a bead on it. 

you can't really see it up the tall pine in the center, but trust me, it's there. the tree has three rather large trunks and since the two on the left had so many live branches, i took the one to the right with not so much green to obstruct a small white flag. it's not quite so high, but it's more open to the west. the wind was moving the main trunks a good 10 feet, from east to west, so i was distracted and forgot to take a picture until i remembered, halfway back toward earth. it was still a grand view.

it was a good end to the week. and much different from the ~20 mile bike ride i took on friday on the newly refurbished nishiki. dick, cory, josh, and i transformed a classic '84 japanese steel touring bike into a modern one. i am looking forward to taking it for a few rides in this year's version--my 3rd go--of #30daysofbiking in april. it's not necessarily the most suitable time to ride in new england, but always interesting when you're outside and playing.

and then we got rain...lots of rain

over christmas eve into christmas day, we got just about 1.5 inches of rain. it was a heavy wet present santa brought down the chimney. unfortunately it melted all that snow we had gotten the week before!

i am calling the mass melting of two feet of snow, an 'all shovels down' event. the red one was down by boxing day. the grain scoop out back toppled over as well. in a proper wintery world, all that rain would have been feet of snow. it would have been one of the deepest decembers i had ever been in. it would have given kevin ample reason to warn me of avalanche danger--he would-ah, he could-ah, he should-ah!

along with the snow, any dreams of backcountry skiing also melted away. all that water was now puddled atop the frozen ground. it also essentially re-flooded the ice on the lakes. as the temps fell over the next couple of days, my hopes rose. there is going to be some incredible skating if the cold keeps up.

outdoor winter recreation doesn't have to begin with 's' though. skiing, skating, and sledding are definitely my first choices, but there are other opportunities, like a moonrise-sunset hike up our local mountain. 

cardigan makes a perfect viewing spot to see far to the way northeast--that's the south end of the franconia ridge with the snow peaks. it also has a clear view to the west--the high peaks across vermont are easily spotted, when they aren't silhouetted at sundown.

the cold did get colder and i got out skating several times on canaan street. it's a spring fed lake though and over the years, i have built up a 'library' of places to avoid early on. the day after justin, olivia, and her friend, grace, skated around the entire lake with me, two good friends, priscilla and elise, went through the ice in a thin spot. it was pretty horrific, but thanks to officer matt who just happened to see them, them not see them, canaan's cold water team pulled them out about 25 minutes later.  

as traumatic that was for the two women, i was relieved that it wasn't any of us that went in. turns out justin's mother had forbid him to go skating when he went around with me. it would have been pretty awkward telling angeline and patrick i was involved with his getting very wet and extremely cold.

several cold nights helped the ice add thickness, enough that i could convince pam to try it out--on mascoma lake's new skating loop. i had skated there--after the fire chief asked folks not to skate on canaan street--and talked to ice fishing people. they were measuring between 5 and 7 inches, with a super smooth surface. we got to skate some with billy, and joan, cofounder of the mlsa.  it was a glorious day.

we went back a couple of days later after a snowfall. the mlsa is trying to keep a loop plowed so there was a good long track to circle. it was incrediblely windy that day, which made skating north nigh on brutal. of course going south was easy peasy. i took a series of pam skating along photos, just as she turned out of the wind.

that is a big smile on her face, as it starts to warm up after being wind blasted. not long after this day there was a snow rain event and while i have heard the ice isn't that bad i have not been back.

i switched to hiking, keeping an eye on the coverage as it snows here and there. we are forecasted to get a nor'easter  february 2nd--if that comes and leaves some significant snow, i will be the one smiling while going outside and playing!

first we got snow...deep snow!

going to bed wednesday, the 16th, it was just starting to snow. the forecast had just changed from 4-6 inches, to 8-10, with the most down in the south west corner of nh. that meant to me, we could get a lot, and all snow. i fell asleep "while visions of [deep snow] danced in my head".

when i woke up thursday morning, i was rewarded--richly. there was already maybe 8" on the top of the vehicles and roofs, which obviously means the ground too, but it is harder to see. that, and it was still snowing hard. bonus, as i suited up for shoveling, it seemed to be coming down even harder. when i got out, i pushed around what was there for a couple hours. when i broke to go in, there was another 8" already built up where i had cleared at the start.

i was thrilled and anxious to get out, up high, turned around, and floating back down. the depth made me choose the steeper runs at shaker wma, hoping to recruit dick. the roads were horrendous and pulling into the bike shop parking area, i turned a bit early, where the road hadn't been plowed yet. it took about an hour of heavy shoveling to dig out. that delay gave dick enough time to finish what he was doing and after eating a bit of lunch we headed across the street. 

skis on the feet, we started plowing towards the trails. by the time we got to the bottom of where we planned to start up, i had lengthened my poles to their max and taken off my sweater. 

the going was about as hard work as i could remember. dick's skis seemed to come out of the depths a bit easier so he mostly broke trail--thank you. it was indeed deep--probably more than 2 feet. when we got to the top of the steep section, we decided enough , let's point them down. we stripped our skins, buckled boots tight, clamped down bindings, and pushed off. turns out we weren't done plowing.

if you stayed in the track we had broken out on the way up, you could move down. but if you went out into the deep, you got maybe one, or one and a half turns in before the snow, pushing at your crotch, stopped you, even at the steepest. you won't hear me say this often, but without a bottom to it, the snow was too deep. 

i gave it a night and went back out friday. still: too early, too deep, too much work. 

that night i convinced myself that the doughboy--a 215cm snowboard--would float it. i emailed olivia and convinced her to join me. we met at the bottom of the shaker hill and hiked up in a track some sledders had made. we buckled in at the top and pointed down. for the third time--it was brutally slow. unless you kept to a track you would sink almost immediately and stop. each time i went off, i got stopped. most of those times, stopping included falling over as well. getting back up was as exhausting as skinning though the deep on that first day. we gave up trying.

sunday, day four, i headed over to the AT off goose pond, figuring really steep had to do it. turns out others were headed for the same idea. they got there a couple hours earlier and it looked like it was indeed fun. i found some untracked areas and practically flew down. that was more like it. i didn't even see all those animal tracks i was following on the way up.

i stopped at skip's to get him to go take a run somewhere. he was busy, so i skinned up town hill solo. the run down the other side was really sweet. i was pretty excited to skin back up and fly down into our dooryard. it was all that i dreamed of. the bottom had finally developed, with the top cold, dry, and fast.

the picture on the left was the track over rowen's log (see oct 12th goap! for rowen riding it). the rock hop on the right was at the 'sledding corner' (see feb 2018 goap! grace and suki sledding). when i got back in the house, i emailed olivia and we arranged to meet again over at the shaker wma--for another go at it.

the next day it was much warmer and somewhat sticky. read slow, and grippy enough i could scale up without skins. that was ok in that we could hit the glades and olivia's first backcountry skiing through the trees would be less anxious. we got by lost pond and started down. as long as you kept moving, it was a good run. when you stopped, you clumped up. basically, i tried not to stop though we changed packs, and i took the big one with snowshoes in it. i also gave her my mittens which let her ride with her hands out of her pockets. 

 

the next day it was much warmer and somewhat sticky. read slow, and grippy enough i could scale up without skins. that was ok in that we could hit the glades and olivia's first backcountry skiing through the trees would be less anxious. it also helped to change packs, and loan her my extra big mittens so she could ride with her hands out of her pockets. that made her smile big--even after she tried jumping a downed tree, and didn't quite make it. as she floated by 'dusting' herself off, she said something like "thanks for the mittens--that helped!"

tuesday was colder and the snow had actually dried out some, not nearly so sticky and still about a foot deep--the bottom was rising--which made it slow~ish. that made cardigan the choice of the day. it was good, but being the sixth day after the snowfall, it was getting tracked out. that never helps.

wednesday was even colder and dryer, and even though the bottom was even higher, about 6 inches now. i went back for one last go at a trail i had noticed had only a central snowshoe track, leaving plenty of edge to turn in. amazingly, the conditions were just about the best of any of the previous days. 

it was a good thing as the rain started christmas eve afternoon and kept up right through christmas day. that wasn't so bad, as i was inside baking the annual christmas pulla while the snow melted. being outside and playing is always good--even when you are getting wet--but after six days i was ok taking a break.

snow on the ground

here in the northeast, saturday was forecasted to be snowy. over the past month, i had gotten in a couple days of trail work on cardigan but wanted to do some final chainsawing on the ski trail before the seasonal freeze up--which hopefully comes, soon. as i parked at the winter trailhead, it was starting to spit snow.

by the time i got up to the first mess of blow downs, it was snowing good. i dropped my pack by a tree and donned chaps, helmet, and ear muffs. i cut a bunch, moved a bunch, hiked a bit, cut some more, moved some more, hiked a bit--more. it went on like that until i got halfway along the second section where i called it good. 

the snow was coming down harder and i was plenty wet, so "good" was good. as i walked back through one particular 'mess' i was impressed with the clear line that was now snowing up.

if this keeps up, stays for the season, and continues to gets deeper and deeper over the next few months, you many not even notice those downed, big ol' trees. that will make me very happy. 

speaking of trail work, last thursday, olivia--back from oregon and off the recommended travel quarantine--joined me on the 2nd half of raking drains on cardigan's west ridge trail. the 1.75" of rain i had in my gauge at home on monday, looked to be at least that much on the mountain. the clear sign of a torrent ran strait down the trail where water had been running. as we got higher and higher, the drains were freezing harder and harder.

at a certain point, we parked the rake and shovel leaning on a tree and just hiked. it was an rare blue sky day and we wanted to see it from the top. surprise, surprise we had a elizabeth siting. elizabeth was a former student, friend of sadie's, and is now coaching cross country and track with tom, her father. she is an active woman recovering from wearing the 'boot' all fall to heal a broken bone in her foot. i snapped a picture of her running by. and another of olivia taking a panorama up at the tower. it was cold enough that we didn't stay long.

the thursday before that was thanksgiving, which means on friday MOC does its annual 'after turkey trot' from goose pond road to holt's ledge along the AT. i didn't advertise anything this year due to covid, but i thought skip & linda or maybe even andrew might show up.

nada. it was pam and i. though we did see some fresh gnawing activity, even the beavers were tucked into their den in the lodge at the damn. there were plenty of wet, slippery leaves to slide around on. footing going up at least, wasn't too bad and the path was rather beautiful in the grey mist.

at the top, overlooking holt's ledge, it was pretty well socked in. you could see enough not to step off the edge, but no further.

after hot tea and a snack and we started back knowing those leaves going down would be trickier. i heard at least one "f*^k" from behind when pam went down as we descended. all i could hope for was that the next time i was on this trail, it would be in knee deep snow, with skis doing all the sliding.

speaking of sliding and hitting the deck, the weekend before we had made the hour~ish drive over to one of our favorite hikes, welch-dickey loop in the waterville valley. it can be really crowded, so with covid and social distancing in mind, we went early on a cloudy, cooler friday morning. that was a good choice, but there were several icy spots--one with my butt print on it. 

we had gone up there years ago with the buffum family and got the idea to recreate a couple of the pictures that i remember taking of iona. pam let me pose under the stone, as my butt was already wet. 

we took a few artsy shots without any shenanigans as well...the one of the cairne reminded us of a goldsworthy sculpture--thank you palmer.

all in all, it was a grand day out. it would have been way cool to have the buffums along again. iona--now in college over in scotland--is even home for the holidays. still, any day we get to 'go outside and play!' is one that puts a smile on our faces.

more adventure riding through the woods scoping out possible fom-ftt routes.

if you haven't ridden a woods road in 10, 15, maybe 20 years, things will probably have changed. if you've never ridden something, things could also have changed over that amount of time, but you won't notice the difference. profound...

saturday, i made a plan to ride the lary pond section and check see if the way through to river road was still passable. i called skip and he accepted the invitation to join in the fun. he had not been through that way in just as long, so it was guaranteed to be an adventure. 

i rode over to his house and offered clockwise or counter clockwise--he chose counter- and we took off toward stevens road. as we passed a friend david's house, he was outside and stopped us to look at his cool new, little workshop with an arched roof. 

back on steven's we flew downhill and turned onto the lary pond road. skip was already planning to stop. i got out my camera as he was playing with his.

there was a small raft of ducks way out, with silhouettes like buffleheads, but not close enough for a positive id. i was thinking the last time i was here, skip and i were on a mission to skate all the bigger ponds in canaan and enfield. that was many winters ago.

back on the road, we climbed steadily to the left hand turn that would take us into dorchester before doubling back into canaan along the headwaters of the mascoma. at one point we crossed the river and stopped on the bridge for pictures--upstream & down.

not too long after that we came to a right hand turn climbing a big hill with snowmobile signs pointing up. i found a 'dead end' sign on a stick buried in the grass on the road following the river. skip seemed to recognize the hill so why not. as we pushed, we were both thinking this would be a great ski with good snow. we kept on pushing and making plans to come back in the winter, early enough after a storm to beat the snow machines.

as the steep fell off, we got back on the saddles and pedaled. after a while the down hill started and as the light was fading we let go the brakes more. maybe more than we should of not being able to see all the rocks. i thunked one solid with my front wheel and even in all the leaves saw within ten yards or so, it was flat.

as i stopped i thought, crap, i never patched that tube that went flat last month. skip to the rescue. as he pulled up behind he announced that he had a spare tube and CO2--score! i didn't even have to take the tire lever out...in nascar pit speed, the tire was under pressure and the wheel back on. we were lucky it was the front one.

a little more down hill and we turned left onto what would become the gore road, headed toward river road and home. skip turned his light on blinking mode, incase anybody needed to see us. i think we made it all the way to the turnpike without any traffic passing in either direction. at the bottom of his hill he offered to gift me a lift if i pedaled up to the house. it was getting dark enough that i took the offer.

it's always great to have skip along, but he was going to be circumnavigating grafton pond the next day, so i didn't even ask him if he wanted to try to find a route down to clark pond from the gore road. i checked both of the leaky tubes but they were too far gone to patch, so i just stuck all the pump and patches in my frame bag and left around noon to give me plenty of light to explore some more.

this time i passed by the pond end of the gore road and followed river road along the mascoma. a mile or more in, i passed another gate and was back in the woods. after what seemed like another mile, up a really gentle grade, i saw the dead end sign i had pulled out of the grass. it was back down again. skip had tried to pound it in with a rotten piece of wood and didn't get it in very far.

i turned up the hill again and tried riding as much as i could--that wasn't far. the steep and wet leaves were brutal. more pushing was involved for a second day, but it gave me plenty of time to think about skiing it. 

back on the saddle, i was a bit more prepared to miss any sharp rocks on the down slope. very soon the path ahead looked wide open and inviting. in the improved light, i figured it would be safe enough to let off the brake and have a bit of fun in the leaves. what the heck, i had patches and a pump!

that got me to the gore road fairly quickly and fortunately, the air in the tires at the top, was still there at the bottom. onto the gore road, i found a road to the right heading toward clark pond. skip had mentioned it saturday so i turned downhill, again. in a quick minute, i came to another intersection surrounded by old stone walls.

off to the left, there were several old cellar holes with foundation stones still laid up. i got off the bike and wandered around trying to imagine the structures that used to sit atop them. i was guessing the house was the smaller one with a walk in cellar. and the barn was bigger with what looked to be a root cellar. i was pretty impressed.

i was also still in the woods and didn't know how far the pond was. i took off. the trail got steep and rocky after just a short bit, but i found an alternative path--with dirt bike tracks--off to one side and took that. it came out just a couple hundred yards shy of the boat launch at the pond. sweet!

the sugar house road that pam and i came down here on last weekend was just around the corner--and up a big hill. so i kept riding. when i got into the woods again--i.e. the deep, slippery leaves--things got even more slippery as sleet started coming down. i tried to take a quick picture, but... 

the sugar house road that pam and i came down here on last weekend was just around the corner--and up a big hill. so i kept riding. when i got into the woods again--i.e. the deep, slippery leaves--things got even more slippery as sleet started coming down. i tried to take a quick picture, but... 

it didn't get any worse although anytime i was going downhill, it was almost cold. when i got back to the house, i realized i had put my hat in my pocket and pulled my thinner neck gaiter up onto my head and my gloves were in my frame bag.

cold or hot, sleet or sun, it always is fun to go outside and play!