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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