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...

sunrise--moonset...

out early!
i mentioned this morning, in the posting of the old tuckerman's draft--finally, almost a year after the fact--i was up early to catch the sunrise-moonset up on cardigan. our two MOC president/secretaries were slated to meet me at the winter parking lot at 6:00a. as i turned onto cardigan-orange road, a vehicle turned with me and i was guessing it was them.

it was, at least it was half of them. olivia jumped out at the parking lot with an early morning smile. justin had stayed in bed. he was probably much warmer than we were, but he would miss a clear view up on the summit.

we donned our creepers, i doffed my jacket, and we started up. the moon gave us plenty of light and even cast a pretty solid shadow in places where the trees didn't scatter its light. having left plenty early, we didn't have to race but we were going along fairly quickly. we stopped at one point to 'breathe' and sip some water. a bit later we cut a tree out of the trail so when it snows again, olivia can sled and i will be able to ski unimpeded.

the next stop, just past turn around rock, we put on jackets to shed the wind now that we were up above tree line. it was colder than i thought, and windy. at the top, both our phones froze up so we have no pictures. too bad, as both the moon and sun were visible right to the horizons. the sun pinked and then peaked out above newfound lake. thin wisps of clouds scudded by us, headed east into the light. the moon seemed to be growing--save for the bite the eclipse took out of the upper left--as it sunk toward the horizon in the west. it was a bit more cloudy on that side, but the white-ish, red-ish disc was visible.

7:02 and sunrise-moonset came and went quickly. we pointed our feet down and turned our heads to the side, cheating the cold wind. olivia had class at 8:00 so we ran quite a bit. back at the vehicles in plenty of time, we had a spot of hot tea and some of pam's tasty oatmeal muffins.






it was a grand start to the day and we both were happy to be 'outside and playing!' 

take two--to tux...

and a good time was had by all!
looking back on MOC's major events over the vacation breaks--deep freeze in february and tuckermans in april--there are frequently many more promising to go than actually make the trip. and while this year had a full cabin up on smarts mtn, very few made it to the bowl. my favorite cancelation, if you can call it that, was from brandon. before we left the high school--the schedule read 7:00a sharp, but we waited at least ten minutes--we tried contacting him by text and a call.

layla--text: "are you coming?"
brandon--text back: "..." nadda.
layla--call: "ring, ring, ring..."
brandon: "..." no answer.

we left for mount washington. about 8:00a, as we were going through plymouth we get a response.

brandon--text: "i thought the trip was on wednesday?"
layla--text back: "today IS wednesday!"
brandon--text back back: "..." nadda

that made us all laugh pretty hard. we didn't dwell on it.

we bought all the tourist tchotchkes and assumed the standard poses--down at pinkham...



and then up at ho-jos. it was not crowded. in fact, only a hand full of folks were up in bowl.

conditions were...let's say solid--very solid. you couldn't see much beyond the lip. but you could hear every turn the one fellow skiing made as he scraped down the ice on the left side. layla and hailey were glad they had left their sliding equipment at ho-jos and after a quick raising of the poles, we went back down to gear up for our own descent on the sherburne trail.



the snow was all manageable, with ice in only a few spots. we zipped right along, haily and i trading leads and layla whooping it up from her tube as she protected our flank. by the time we ran out of snow, their smiles were huge.

while there was a bit of texting and sending of pictures on the way back, there was a lot of sleeping. it was a fine day to 'go outside and play!'

ps i realize this is an ancient draft--but as i drink an early morning tea, and prep for a MOC moonset-sunrise hike, it seems an appropriate time to start posting again...stay tuned!

change of season--almost...

off the mountain and onto the roads--atop the trusty nishiki. 
at least for this past week. last monday i did run up cardigan for april's moonrise-sunrise extraveganza. as is usual in the winter, i was the only one hiking. the amazing thing, given our warmer and rainy weather lately, there was snow or ice right down to the gate across from the winter parking lot. i put on the micro-spikes under the shelter at the summer lot and headed up the west ridge trail.

there was plenty of snow the rest of the way--complete with ski tracks weaving on and off the path. it was probably 60°F out so the snow was pretty slushy. in places it was even darn wet, like mini-skim pools at the bottoms of spring ski runs. i picked lines through those spots to avoid sinking a foot or more as soon as one stepped off the packed trail.




at one point, i noticed that somebody had skied my micro-shute--the one on the right of the trail in the picture--that skip kids me for always taking. i took a picture of that to send off to him. you can see there was still plenty of snow in the woods. when he got this picture, skip even made noises about going up and skiing. that would have been a site to see.





i took off the micro-spikes at turn around rock, and picked my way up on the bare granite. as usual it got windier the higher i got. at the top i skirted around the leeward side of the tower, dropped my pack, and fished out my jacket. i noticed my head was getting dripped on and when i looked up, water was leaking directly out of the tower cabin floor. that was weird.

i got the camera out with my jacket and went to another side where i wouldn't get wet. the moon was due up already, but a huge cloud bank was going to hide that for longer than i would be up on top. the sun however, was giving a good show going down behind a low cloud and the horizon. i snapped a picture looking west. the light was perfect for a shot of the tower looking east where the moon was hiding, so i turned and snapped a picture that way too. when i lowered the camera i discovered why the tower cabin floor was dripping. one of the windows was broken almost completely out. it must have been that way for the recent, heavy wet, foot of snow.



as i took off downward, i made a note to call craig, our cardigan trail crew chief, who i guessed would get in touch with his state contact. i put the micro-spikes back on at turn around rock and picked up the sled i had left there too. while my first little run shot me off into the trees, i made it back onto the trail and got set for a second. this would be a fast descent--i would have a wet butt, but i would be down well before it got too dark, and i would be smiling.

as expected, as i slid down to the gate, my backside was soaked, and i was happy. as i drove home, i noted the roads were dry and mostly free of sand--i planned on getting the bike out.

turned out, that was a pretty good plan. i was able to ride 5 of the next 7 days. while i never went more than 20 miles, each day i felt a bit stronger--and my butt was dry! what could be better than that?! (well, ok, the picture si sent of his buddy toby on a ski they took that week in the colorado rockies...)




since i can't get pam to move out west, i will have to enjoy that kind of powder vicariously. maybe i will get a great picture of one of the MOC students when we go up to tuckermans on wednesday--that might even make him jealous...

snow, rain, snow...

weekends book ended a couple of weeks with all sorts of weather, enabling all kinds of activities--and spoiling others. 
back on the 24th of april, we got 6-8 inches of medium fluff. by medium, i mean on the light sight of heavy, but just. by saturday when skip and i took our skis over to goodhue hill road heading up to butternut pond, it had warmed to around freezing and the snow thickened into something similar to goopy oatmeal. as we parked, we caught site of a lone skier on the other of the pile where the plow stops. we got our boots and skis on and followed after, wondering the usual who, what, where stuff. the closed road was very pleasant and would be steep enough to give us a good ride down through the thickening snow.

about half way up the steeper section, the tracks ahead of us turned off the road and went into the woods. we speculated that the trail paralleled the ridge north, over to the shaker wildlife area. we kept to goodhue and a half mile of up later, fresh ski tracks came out of the woods and crossed into the woods on the south side of the woods. whoever was skiing ahead of us, it was obvious he knew the area. the last time skip and i had been here was years ago, and then in the summer, on bikes. we decided to follow the tracks and turned off the road.

it turned out to parallel goodhue for another half mile until it met a major crossing trail with the mystery skier standing in the middle of the junction. he was headed back down the crossing logging trail into enfield center where he lived. we were going to get back on goodhue and continue to butternut or turn around and ski down. after a brief chat, he went his way and we took off our skins, deciding going down would be more fun given the slow conditions.

the snow was almost sticky and weaving through the trees was quite tame compared to some downhill runs i have been on. in the woods, the angle was gentle enough to slow us almost too much and we got back to the steeper road hoping for added speed. we got our wish, but the oatmeal thick quality kept us focused so we didn't face plant and end up eating it.

we met at the bottom, atop the snow pile, with smiles but i don't recall any "best skiing ever" proclamations as we took skis off and walked to the car. given the conditions, it didn't take too much to decide we didn't really need to stop at la salette and take another run. when we got the car going, it turned out it was fairly late which made it even easier to head back home.

likewise, it was easy to say no thanks when skip called up on sunday to see if i wanted to try the skiway. i took a run up cardigan, sans skis--or camera--and called it a good day: dry feet, no blood, some sun on the top of my bald head.

speaking of bald heads in the sun, thursday i remembered the camera on my second day at the skiway that week.



i had meetings in the afternoon, so i went for a late morning run or three. it had rained monday through tuesday (softly enough to go over and take one run after work) then into wednesday when it sort of cleared-ish. of course it got cold wednesday night, and thursday morning the snow was pretty solid. but i was counting on a strong sun in a blue-bird sky, to soften things up by the time i got there.

again, i got my wish. i headed up the winslow side with the barlows, a couple i met at the bottom putting their skins on for a second run. a soft top on pretty much total coverage was glorious. i tried to convince them to take a holt's side run but their schedule was tight, so i headed up warden's solo. the snow on that side was equally soft, until i got to the headwall section--where i stopped and took the pictures above.

the reflective sheen in the 'looking up' picture on the left was indeed ice, but skis turned in it rather than sliding and scraping. the steepest part of the headwall wasn't catching enough sun to soften it like the rest of the trails, but i was able to set an edge and carve. of course each arc cut up and let loose a load of crust which noisily followed my line down. i veered off twice to ski out of the stream of crust, until cut myself loose and skied out in front of it. by the time i flew by the my first picture spot, the snow was perfect, and the turns felt like cutting butter with a warm knife.

such were the conditions thursday with a predicted 'noreaster' scheduled for friday into saturday. things sounded like we would get a foot or more of snow--that would make things exciting in the backcountry. sure enough, it started building friday evening and by saturday morning we had a good foot or more. where to go skiing today? after skip had plowed out, i picked him up and we headed over to cardigan mountain. over the years, more and more skiers had been doing the same, and we had been talking about finding a new 'local' line to ski on the mountain in our back yard.


instead of going up to the winter parking lot, we turned onto peaslee road and drove to the plow pile at its end. it was still snowing as we geared up and took off into the deep. neither of us had ever been this way, but we had scouted it out on google and had an idea of where we wanted to go. skip had an old map and compass which we hoped to be able to help make sense of a route.

a long road into a summer camp got us a mile or so in before we were into the woods, on our own so to speak. we were able to follow some sort of old logging trail quite a bit further, but eventually, the brush got thick and we were definitely whacking it. when we burst out into a clearing, it felt good, even though the clouds offered only the slightest hint of a ridgeline off to the east. map and compass suggested that we were probably looking at firescrew and the summit of cardigan was off to the south. that made sense to us and we figured we would return to scout the rest of the trail out when we could actually see further.

the ski out was great in those parts of the woods that were fairly open. i did get whapped by a few branches, but nothing drew blood--or much of it. out on the road, the depth slowed us right down except for the couple of steeper sections. when we got back to the truck, i contemplated a run up to the park, but skip wanted to ski the cardigan trails with linda so we headed to his house. while we ate a bit of lunch, i got back on google and tried to figure out where we had actually gotten to. my hope was to go back and connect that end point with the snow fields off the summit.

the clouds lifted enough to see on sunday, but it also warmed which would make a foot of snow feel like wet cement--as opposed to a half-a-foot feel like "goopy oatmeal". when, skip called to coax me over to the ski way, i again declined. this time i went snowshoeing with pam.

skip--as in pass by--a few week days of more rain and one of fairly warm sun, some strong wind blowing flurries on saturday last, and you get to bright sunny sunday with temps headed into the 50's. i couldn't reach skip--my adventure buddy--so i grabbed pam's smaller pair of snow shoes, forgetting the camera, again, and drove back to peaslee road. i followed our last week's path in, though it was barely visible, and made it up into the woods without too much problem. in the woods things got much softer and deeper which made me glad to have snowshoes--even though skip does not like to snowshoe they are sometimes the best means of getting about in winter.

when i got back to the clearing we hit upon last weekend, i could easily see the tower up on cardigan summit. i took a compass reading--160°south--and tied a piece of flagging tape on a small fir. my hope was to get up there over a possible-skiable trail. going was slow but i kept at it, following the path of least resistance where i could, whacking through the bush where i had to.

a few hours later i popped out onto a lower snowfield just below the mowgli trail turns up at the final few hundred yards, headed to the summit of cardigan--yeah! i took a compass reading looking back down from the tower to the clearings i could see below where i had just come from and figured, ok that might work. i tied another piece of flagging tape before i dove back down into the drainage i had followed up.

going down is always quicker than getting up, but the steepness definitely didn't make it easier. still, the drainage looked like it would definitely be possible to ski given a full load of winter snow. of course, as i went back through those thick spots i imagined, a bit of clearing would be necessary. and for that, permissions had to be gotten. going by the camp--the snow was super soft now--i thought they could be the first people we'd ask.

when i got back to peaslee road, the owner of the driveway at the plow pile was out redistributing mud to help drain things. we talked a bit and when i left, i had a good feeling of a trail happening someday.