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.

Fire tower at start of trail.

Steve and Bruce heading back after injury. Big hole in foreground looks like a "moose bed" that Bruce had something to do with.

Steve crawling fast after Bruce told him what he would do if Steve was a horse.

End of trail shot. People are still smiling.

One Ride On A Sled

Extra heavy "powder"

Skating VT to NY 3/9/14

Lake Champlain is completely frozen over for the first time in a while. Maybe 6-7 years? In the summer we have been known to travel from Charlotte VT to Essex NY to a place called the Old Dock, which is a bar/restaurant. This place puts the emphasis on the bar part. The Old Dock is closed in the winter but it seemed like a good destination anyway. Call it practice for the upcoming summer. The mode of transportation was skates. The distance is about 8.5 miles round trip if you went in a straight line. We didn't go in a straight line. There were two large pressure cracks in the ice. One ran the entire length of the bay we started in, had ice chunks 2-4 feet high, and had water around the pressure crack. We decided we could not cross it without going to the end of it where it met the shore. Near the shore there was an area with no water that we could get across. We skated next to a second crack that went from VT to NY in an east/west direction. The ice was mixed. Areas of perfect black ice, areas of bumpy ice, and areas of wind blown snow. There was a fair amount of weaving necessary to stay on good ice. We didn't make it to the Old Dock. It turns out the Ferry was running so there was a water channel going right in front of the Old Dock since the Ferry comes in right next to it. It was a little strange skating on the ice with an open water channel next to us. Perfect blue sky day and little wind.

Pressure Crack

Destination - Old Dock NY

Picture of Steve taking pictures

Steve racing Ferry

Returning after victory

Camels Hump Ski 3/8/14

The schedule for today called for skiing the Camels Hump challenge trail. This is a 15 mile x-country ski trail that starts in Huntington and goes around Camels Hump. We started at the Burrows trail and went up Bald Hill to connect with the trail. The trail is well designed and manages to keep things very skiable through some rough terrain. There is a nice long downhill from Bald Hill down into the Honey Hollow valley. The trail then heads back toward the top of the valley and crosses a few ravines before going up to about 3000 feet on the NW side of Camels Hump. The trail stays at that elevation and goes around the mountain, through wind gap, and then back around the West side. The trail had good snow the whole way. The only rough skiing was at the end when we went off the trail to go back down the Burrows trail to the car. Everyone fell on this part and it was tough going particularly at the end of the day. We decided this part would be best avoided next time by leaving from Camels Hump Ski Association.

CHSA - Lions Ridge 2/22/14

Camels Hump Ski Association. Pictures by Sue. This is a neighborhood managed x-country ski center that I was involved with when I lived in Huntington. Sue, Bruce, and Ken visited in late February. We parked at the original parking lot which was empty except for a few utility trucks that had been there for a while since they were covered with snow. We started out on an ungroomed trail which was tracked by a few skiers. We thought the CHSA was on its last legs. The shed in the parking lot was falling down and we left our money in an unlocked box that was partially filled with mouse droppings. We didn't see anyone going up to Lions Ridge and around the Lions Ridge loop trail. On the way down we went over to Dead River Run and headed down to Windeken Farm. As soon as we got into that area the trails were groomed and we started to see people. That whole Southern part of the ski area had changed significantly. There was a new parking lot with about 20 cars in it, well groomed trails, and 3-4 new trails were added. One of them is a fairly long loop with nice views. We changed our thought that CHSA was in trouble and Bruce commented that they had in fact done very well once I left!

Ginger Nutmeg