Wednesday 26 March 2008

OK winter, that's just about enough out of you

I didn't think I would ever say this, but I have had enough of the cold and the deep piles of snow. I had to dig down to get access to my composter the other day. Three months of skiing has been fine but let's move on to other things! Besides I've already been hitting buckets of golf balls at a local indoor driving range!

So at work the other day (on my break of course) I put pen to paper and doodled up a list of peaks that I would like to hike this summer. These include the 10 I have remaining for the ADK 46 and then some that are shorter than 4000ft and others in different states. I doubt I will get to all of these but if I get to half of them it will be a great season.. So in no particular order:

Adirondacks:
Upper Great Range from Gothics

  • Hopkins mountain via mossy cascade
  • Seward by Calkins or Ward Brook herdpath
  • Skylight and Grey
  • Cliff and Redfield
  • Allen
  • Pyramid
  • Couchie (gotta go back and finish the job)
  • East dix and Hough from Elk Lake
  • Dix (I plan to leave this for my 46th)
  • Moose and McKenzie


Whites


greenleafhut

Friday 21 March 2008

Awesome Friday

marginal

When I got to the P17 trailhead this morning I was greeted with a sign saying "marginal ski conditions". What were those lazy incompetent groomers up to this time? Well screw them I said, I was going for a ski and an epic one at that. My plan was to visit each of the cabins in the park. Now I didn't have a sandwich in my pack for each of them but I did have plenty of food and water. I headed down 53 which was quite crusty as advertised but passable. On to P19 and then 53 to cabins Renaud and Lusk.

As I headed up old trail 10 I was glad to be going up and not down as that would have been akin to skiing down a bobsled track. I took a nice snack break at McKinstry. It was great to get out of the wind for a while. Off to Western. Even though skiing up on the ridge, the trail is mostly in the trees which stop at least some of the wind. Western had a nice sunny view and again it was good to be inside away from the wind.

I skied by Huron and only stopped long enough to see if the Norwegian ambassador was home (nope). Then it was down the hill past Shilly Shally for another snack break at Keogan. These cabins are great places to stop to eat and sometimes just to stand near the woodstove to warm up and dry off.

The track on Fortune was slick and it took no time to get down to P10 and then along the connector trail to P11. Trail 36 was quite the icy roller coaster today and I was getting pretty tired when I arrived at the twins, Healey and Herridge. Some more food and liquids and then out via trail 52 to the car.

A full day to be sure, it seemed almost like a dream!

Sunday 16 March 2008

Ah! Spring skiing

bruletrail
In contrast to Friday's sticky conditions, today was a perfect day. It was warm and sunny enough to make me think I should have put on some sunscreen and slick enough for some nice glide. I eased past the parking lot full sign at P10 and had my choice between two spots. A friendly sort greeted me as I approached the parkway and wished me a good day. I'm not sure if this is the guy who is supposed to ask for your pass or suggest that you pay. It would seem this winter that one could have skied free if one wanted to. I am happy to pay for a pass given the extensive network of trails and the usual great conditions but I must say I hope they go back to Lafleur next season.

picnictableupdate
I headed up the parkway and then took Ridge road to the Brulé lookout. I managed to snag the only picnic table that was above the snowline and sat for a nice break soaking up the sun and the view of the Ottawa river valley. Then it was all downhill back to the car. That is one thing I love about xc skiing, whatever effort you put in going uphill is rewarded with a relaxing slide back down! We'll see how many more weekends there will be to ski but I hope to get in a few more days like this before the season is over.

fortune bruleview

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Friday 14 March 2008

Pine Road - Old School

gatmeadow
I took the afternoon off Friday and headed for one of my favorite trails for a short ski, P16 and the Pine Road trail. Based on ongoing construction, highway 5 will be extended past this spot sometime next summer so it will be interesting to see how they provide an access to P16. I headed out "old-school" today which is to say that in my rush to assemble some gear this morning I omitted my ski pants so I had on a pair of jeans instead. Normally that would be a big mistake but not on a warm spring day with temps at or above 0.

meechisland
The snow surface was sticky and soon clumped on the bottom of my waxless skis. This is not a bad thing when going up the long hill that starts the trail but terrible for gliding once on the flats. Since it was not to be a good day for a ski, I headed for a favorite bench on Meech lake and sat for a while enjoying the view and the sounds of spring time. While there is a ton of snow, I think spring is coming quickly and the best ski days are behind us. That said, it was a real nice day to be sitting at a bench beside a frozen lake instead of an ergonomic chair at the office.

hwy5snowbank

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Sunday 2 March 2008

Waffle day with a side order of fresh powder

vaffles
Today was a spectacular day out in Gatineau Park. The sun was out, it was about -5C and there was a fresh blanket of 10cm of snow that fell yesterday. Oh and it was Norway day at Huron cabin. From 11am to 2pm, staff from the Norwegian embassy were at Huron serving vaffles with a slice of goat's cheese and some tasty jam as well as some sort of hot berry drink. Plenty of sugar to load up on and serving staff who were polite but forcefull if you tried to go to the front of the line!!

brulelookout
Bryan and I skied in from P9 which was almost full due to the event. Ken skied from P6 (MacKenzie King) and met us there. We had our usual sandwiches to toast and the vaffles really hit the spot too. After loading up on the calories we spent the afternoon skiing the less travelled back country trails which were in perfect shape due to the new snow. We took trail 3 (Burma Road) to 12 and then 11 to the Fortune Parkway and then 9 towards Camp Fortune ski hill. These trails are all quite narrow with some short steep hills which can be tricky when icy but today there were a joy.

backcountry
Ken left us at the junction of 32 and 9 to head back to his car. Bryan and I heard what sounded like a child crying and yelling. We skied up the hill and found a young guy (about 10) who seemed to have been abandoned by his dad and couldn't get one of his bindings to close on his boot. We stopped to help him (this happens to my bindings too when there is a lot of powder) and once he got going again his dad and brother showed up. Seems strange to me that a parent would leave their child behind like that, pretty dangerous.

picnictable
After some twists and turns and falls into deep snow we were back on the Fortune parkway and the easy glide back down to the parking lot. What a great day to be out enjoying fine Norwegian food and awesome back country skiing!

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