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| Lookout near pond |
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| New home? |
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| Jeff Chapman land and trailer |
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Saturday, March 29, 2014
Camels Hump Ski Assoc 3/29/14
X-country skiing at Camels Hump Ski Association. Took the Catamount trail around Lion's Ridge. Crossed the pond from Lion's Ridge to look out toward the ADK's. Visited the bus that isn't going anywhere.
Work/Play 3/25/2014
Amazing run of great snow the past week. I have been trying to take advantage of it and made it out skiing 5 of the last 7 days. Today was a Tuesday with a half day at work and 4 hours skiing in Huntington. This time I went to Carse road. The Catamount trail goes South primarily on a snow mobile trail. Today I found a nice trail that avoids the snow mobile trail for the most part. I didn't make it to Waitsfield on this day but you can go all the way to the battleground condos in Waitsfield. The snow was great mid winter conditions.There are some interesting views of Camels Hump from an angle I am not used to.
It is also worth mentioning the downhill skiing. The mountains have a great base at this point and have been getting a lot of 6-12 inch storms that are happening just at elevation. I went to Mad River last Friday. Everything open, amazing base, and they got 6 inches of powder the night before. Amazing day. The next day Saturday was Jay Peak. Jay got another 6 inches Friday night for another powder day. Jay was a mid winter day. It kept snowing all morning and then turned into a blizzard at the end of the day. Tough to see unless you went into the woods. Luckily Jay has many options to ski in the woods.
Notes about Carse rd: To avoid the snow mobile trail go straight across the snow mobile trail when you first get to it. Take a left at the first fork. This brings you up toward the Huntington gap and comes out on the snow mobile trail again. Continue South a short distance and you get to the Catamount trail. At this point head South on the Catamount trail. This is a new section that was added in the past year.
It is also worth mentioning the downhill skiing. The mountains have a great base at this point and have been getting a lot of 6-12 inch storms that are happening just at elevation. I went to Mad River last Friday. Everything open, amazing base, and they got 6 inches of powder the night before. Amazing day. The next day Saturday was Jay Peak. Jay got another 6 inches Friday night for another powder day. Jay was a mid winter day. It kept snowing all morning and then turned into a blizzard at the end of the day. Tough to see unless you went into the woods. Luckily Jay has many options to ski in the woods.
Notes about Carse rd: To avoid the snow mobile trail go straight across the snow mobile trail when you first get to it. Take a left at the first fork. This brings you up toward the Huntington gap and comes out on the snow mobile trail again. Continue South a short distance and you get to the Catamount trail. At this point head South on the Catamount trail. This is a new section that was added in the past year.
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| What cats do for entertainment on a winter day |
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| Even in the "city" there is snow |
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| Carse road ski |
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| This one and the next are distorted with a fish eye option on the camera. |
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| Go either way. Everything works. |
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| Where I spent my morning. Talking to machines! |
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Shelburne Ski 3/18/14
Shelburne has some good locations to ski but being at lake level it doesn't get snow that often. Lately it has been good so I decided to get out after work Monday and Tuesday. Monday I went right from the house which is always nice. There are a number of trails in a section of woods between Spear and Shelburne rd that allows for a nice 1 hour ski. Mostly woods with some lake views and a few open fields. Very good for back yard access in the "city"! Tuesday was a longer ski near the lake shore. This is a very nice ski and the snow has been good enough that I have been able to go on this route a number of times this year. There is plenty of snow on the lake now so part of the time Tuesday was spent skiing on the lake. Pictures are from Tuesday...
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| Lulu was very happy to be out in the snow |
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Bolton ski 3/15/14
After two feet of snow on Thursday it was time to get out in the woods and do some x-country skiing. Saturday was a March-like day. Unpredictable. It started out warm, about 40, and cooled down as the day went on with snow showers throughout the day.
John, Jill, Jean, Sue, Bruce, Carolyn, Steve, Ken started out by dropping cars at Waterbury reservoir and then heading back to Bolton for the start. The plan was the Woodward trail which starts at the top of the Vista chair lift at Bolton. There was some discussion about whether to take the lift up or ski up via heavenly highway. We decided on the lift which turned out to be a good choice. Even though the parking lot was full, and Bolton looked as crowded as it gets, the lift line wasn't bad. By the time we talked about what to do with packs and how to handle x-country ski lift access we were headed up.
The snow conditions were tricky since it was above freezing. Fast in some tracked areas with two feet of heavy snow where it wasn't tracked. The trail starts with a steep downhill with no warm up. Plenty of wipe outs right from the start. Steve fell and quickly realized he had injured his hamstring. After some thought he decided he couldn't keep skiing. Bruce, Ken, and Steve headed back to the top of Bolton to drop Steve off at the ski patrol building. It almost seemed like Steve planned the whole injury since the rest of his day consisted of sledding down Bolton, hanging out at the bar, and watching Oprah. It wasn't exactly Oprah but you get the idea. The ski patrol decided to let their youngest member try sledding someone out with Steve as the crash test dummy. They quickly gave the young guy some instruction by teaching him how to yell "runaway sled" over and over. Ken forgot to take a picture of Steve strapped into the sled which was a serious mistake.
Ken and Bruce headed back down the trail to catch up with the group. Ken and Bruce had skied this trail about five years ago and Ken's memory was that it was "pretty much downhill". It turns out that wasn't exactly correct and the group had to work their way through some areas of "reverse downhill" or what some other folks call uphill. At one point we applied glide wax just before a particularly steep reverse downhill. Gliding isn't a virtue when you are going backwards.
The trail is a good one. Long run down a ridge with some open glades. Isolated enough to not get much ski traffic and quiet. There are some good views but not on this day as it was cloudy and snowing. There were points where you could look down into Waterbury reservoir and also South and back to the West. The snow conditions made for a longer and trickier ski. Lots of falling by everyone which tends to burn a lot of energy particularly when your poles sink down 5 feet as you try to pull yourself up.
There was discussion early on about an additional Waterbury ski tour when we got back to the reservoir area to get some exercise since the trail was "pretty much downhill". By the time we got there everyone had plenty of skiing and thoughts turned to a "quickest route to the car" planning scenario.
Everyone went to the Cider House in Waterbury after and immediately began to forget about any difficulties. I am pretty sure when we do the trail again in 5 years we will remember that it was "pretty much downhill".
Pictures taken by Jill and Ken.
John, Jill, Jean, Sue, Bruce, Carolyn, Steve, Ken started out by dropping cars at Waterbury reservoir and then heading back to Bolton for the start. The plan was the Woodward trail which starts at the top of the Vista chair lift at Bolton. There was some discussion about whether to take the lift up or ski up via heavenly highway. We decided on the lift which turned out to be a good choice. Even though the parking lot was full, and Bolton looked as crowded as it gets, the lift line wasn't bad. By the time we talked about what to do with packs and how to handle x-country ski lift access we were headed up.
The snow conditions were tricky since it was above freezing. Fast in some tracked areas with two feet of heavy snow where it wasn't tracked. The trail starts with a steep downhill with no warm up. Plenty of wipe outs right from the start. Steve fell and quickly realized he had injured his hamstring. After some thought he decided he couldn't keep skiing. Bruce, Ken, and Steve headed back to the top of Bolton to drop Steve off at the ski patrol building. It almost seemed like Steve planned the whole injury since the rest of his day consisted of sledding down Bolton, hanging out at the bar, and watching Oprah. It wasn't exactly Oprah but you get the idea. The ski patrol decided to let their youngest member try sledding someone out with Steve as the crash test dummy. They quickly gave the young guy some instruction by teaching him how to yell "runaway sled" over and over. Ken forgot to take a picture of Steve strapped into the sled which was a serious mistake.
Ken and Bruce headed back down the trail to catch up with the group. Ken and Bruce had skied this trail about five years ago and Ken's memory was that it was "pretty much downhill". It turns out that wasn't exactly correct and the group had to work their way through some areas of "reverse downhill" or what some other folks call uphill. At one point we applied glide wax just before a particularly steep reverse downhill. Gliding isn't a virtue when you are going backwards.
The trail is a good one. Long run down a ridge with some open glades. Isolated enough to not get much ski traffic and quiet. There are some good views but not on this day as it was cloudy and snowing. There were points where you could look down into Waterbury reservoir and also South and back to the West. The snow conditions made for a longer and trickier ski. Lots of falling by everyone which tends to burn a lot of energy particularly when your poles sink down 5 feet as you try to pull yourself up.
There was discussion early on about an additional Waterbury ski tour when we got back to the reservoir area to get some exercise since the trail was "pretty much downhill". By the time we got there everyone had plenty of skiing and thoughts turned to a "quickest route to the car" planning scenario.
Everyone went to the Cider House in Waterbury after and immediately began to forget about any difficulties. I am pretty sure when we do the trail again in 5 years we will remember that it was "pretty much downhill".
Pictures taken by Jill and Ken.
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| Fire tower at start of trail. |
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| Steve and Bruce heading back after injury. Big hole in foreground looks like a "moose bed" that Bruce had something to do with. |
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| Steve crawling fast after Bruce told him what he would do if Steve was a horse. |
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| End of trail shot. People are still smiling. |
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| One Ride On A Sled |
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| Extra heavy "powder" |
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