RR
11-09-2003, 10:43 PM
Whilst visiting with my son and his fiance in Skowhegan we took a drive to look at UMaine-Farmington on Saturday. Since it was not far to go we drove up to Saddleback and scoped out the situation there. We looked around and admired the shiny new snowmaking machines at the base. They had just been practicing with the new system and the results looked very nice indeed. We drove back to Skowhegan via Sugarloaf and noticed there was snowmaking going full blast on an intermediate run to the base of the "snowfield" area. Also higher up on another easy trail
On Sunday Al and I zipped up to the Loaf and hiked up a power line, the T-Bar of days gone by. We checked out the old mid-station and then toddled across to Winters Way (the new one) and headed up to the second bushy cross over. We switched to ski mode while the snomaking crew in the area worked their way down the slope, attending to the snow guns ("silver birch" fixed type). Once were were ready, the younsgter let the old man have first tracks (so thoughtfull!), but he is much faster so that didn't last...the pinning was very nice, especially as the snowmaking rolls were really big. I confess to only adequet form and a few falls lower down, but I digress.
Big grins, thumbs up and WOO-WOO from the crew as we slid on by. Half way down there was increasing moisture content so the going was tricky, it being better to stay close to the guns, many of which were tripods mixed in with the fixed towers. We saw more crew further down and got more whoops, hollers and smiles as we linked rolls with a few adventures in the grass. All too soon it was done. At the bottom we chatted with a nice gent and then bailed back to Skowhegan. The gent was taking pictures and may have been senior staff or management.
Since I have no photos, this is not an official entry for Maine, but offered for y'alls ammusemnt.
On Sunday Al and I zipped up to the Loaf and hiked up a power line, the T-Bar of days gone by. We checked out the old mid-station and then toddled across to Winters Way (the new one) and headed up to the second bushy cross over. We switched to ski mode while the snomaking crew in the area worked their way down the slope, attending to the snow guns ("silver birch" fixed type). Once were were ready, the younsgter let the old man have first tracks (so thoughtfull!), but he is much faster so that didn't last...the pinning was very nice, especially as the snowmaking rolls were really big. I confess to only adequet form and a few falls lower down, but I digress.
Big grins, thumbs up and WOO-WOO from the crew as we slid on by. Half way down there was increasing moisture content so the going was tricky, it being better to stay close to the guns, many of which were tripods mixed in with the fixed towers. We saw more crew further down and got more whoops, hollers and smiles as we linked rolls with a few adventures in the grass. All too soon it was done. At the bottom we chatted with a nice gent and then bailed back to Skowhegan. The gent was taking pictures and may have been senior staff or management.
Since I have no photos, this is not an official entry for Maine, but offered for y'alls ammusemnt.