Toasted fleece at McKinstry

The weather forecast called for 2-4 cm of snow and temperatures around -5 and Bryan's carpool gang were taking the day off so we decided it was a good idea to do likewise and go for a ski. Today's goal was McKinstry from P12. This is a 20km ski on some of the less travelled trails in the park. Some healthy climbing right away to get you up the ridge and then up and down along Ridge rd. There was a real frost in the air right from the start and the temps were a bit colder than forecast. The climb up from Meech lake really gets the heart pumping and warms you up. We had a brief encounter with Santa at the Wolf trail bench but it turned out to be a snowshooer with bear bells. The trail up on the ridge was a winter wonderland of snow covered evergreens.

It took a while to get the fire going at the hut to toast up lunch and dry off clothes. I added a new item to the menu, home made chick pea and tomato soup. This was a success although a biggger thermos will be required for future trips. The stove is a good place to warm up food, dry off clothing and if you are carefull...warm up clothing. A strange odor that wafted over while we eating suggested someone had overdone their fleece. Turned out it was Bryan's and his sleeve had reverted back to some sort of plasticy goo that quickly hardened to a sharp edge. He etched "BvT" into the picnic table before deciding to remove the offending part to avoid cutting himself accidentally.

It took a while to warm up on the way back but it was great to be going down all the hills. A great ski day for sure!