Luddite
12-10-2003, 03:04 PM
"If I'm not back by 4, I'll need help on the UT trail". My friend didn't really need to voice his opinion regarding my sanity, but of course he did anyway. The UT is a former mountain bike trail I cut that I can't ride anymore, so now it's a ski trail. Has a lot of narrow lines, some chutes, 90%trees as well as some 3-6' built drops for those with fat twintips and ADD :)
Skinned the same trail kfarrar and M@ were on, but it's seen a lot of visits in the past day. Lots of snowboard lines off to the north side of the trail, looks like they've been very busy. I reached the first summit in not too long, so much easier without the 45 lb downhill bike, ripped off the skins and thought about where to go. The east side had been pounded, which makes sense since it has established trails and leads to the road. To the west - nary a track. Not even the snowmobile trails had been ridden. Nicely, this is where my trail is stashed. The trail took 3 years to cut on lunch hours, and I hid the access very well indeed. The traditional entry is not interesting for skiing, so I just pointed west into the trees and let em go. The snow on the way up was getting a tad heavy, but here it was as light as the day it fell, and line after line just opened up for me. Sometimes this happened after getting whacked across the face with a branch, but that's fine. It felt so good to finally make some decent turns I didn't want to stop, but I realized that the first manmade jump wasn't where it was supposed to be. Told ya I hid it well! I wasn't going off it anyway, so I just let gravity be my guide and finally I saw a familiar spot. Familiar isn't always the same as good, and this light birch glade told me I was making a bee line to New Boston, exactly where I didn't want to go. Hooked into a hiking trail and started skinning back up the hill, but my spirits were high! Finally found the bike trail, and thought about skiing it further, but - and this is a rare occurence for me - sanity and responsibility prevailed. The reason no one goes on the west side much is because you can go a long way and wind up nowhere. In four years of exploring back here I've never seen a trace of a human. Just deer, moose and black bear. And me. Thing is, in winter the landmarks are all gone, and this had all the makings of a death march. So instead I took the main fireroad south. Oddly, the north direction was heavily tracked out, but no one had touched it below the intersection. It wasn't steep, but it was clean and I got to practice linking teles all the way down to what we call the Winter Trail.
The Winter Trail isn't on any map either. It's an old game trail we came across while mountain biking in the winter that happens to intersect my trail in a way that allows you to get back to your car. (Eventually.) I'd decided to spend my afternoon setting in a good skin track so next time I skied it would be easy to get back. By now the snow was getting a lot heavier, and it was feeling like work, but the terrain here is flat. I finally made my way to where the ski trail intersects. It looks steeper when you're alone on skis, but hey I was here, so I enjoyed shot after shot of fresh snow, gluttonously consuming every line in sight. Now I could work the skin track in some more - back up the hill to the flat. Good thing for climbing bars.
Three hours later I made it back for my teleconference (this was supposed to be a vacation day, I don't get 3 hour lunches usually) and my legs are smoked. I'd say I did an hour skiing and 2 hours skinning, but the trail is ready. On the way out I saw just endless possibilities, some short, some longer, most treed. Those of you who know the spot can probably follow my tracks, but a guided tour is better. Skins would be required, post holing out of this place would bite. Next snowfall - be there.
Skinned the same trail kfarrar and M@ were on, but it's seen a lot of visits in the past day. Lots of snowboard lines off to the north side of the trail, looks like they've been very busy. I reached the first summit in not too long, so much easier without the 45 lb downhill bike, ripped off the skins and thought about where to go. The east side had been pounded, which makes sense since it has established trails and leads to the road. To the west - nary a track. Not even the snowmobile trails had been ridden. Nicely, this is where my trail is stashed. The trail took 3 years to cut on lunch hours, and I hid the access very well indeed. The traditional entry is not interesting for skiing, so I just pointed west into the trees and let em go. The snow on the way up was getting a tad heavy, but here it was as light as the day it fell, and line after line just opened up for me. Sometimes this happened after getting whacked across the face with a branch, but that's fine. It felt so good to finally make some decent turns I didn't want to stop, but I realized that the first manmade jump wasn't where it was supposed to be. Told ya I hid it well! I wasn't going off it anyway, so I just let gravity be my guide and finally I saw a familiar spot. Familiar isn't always the same as good, and this light birch glade told me I was making a bee line to New Boston, exactly where I didn't want to go. Hooked into a hiking trail and started skinning back up the hill, but my spirits were high! Finally found the bike trail, and thought about skiing it further, but - and this is a rare occurence for me - sanity and responsibility prevailed. The reason no one goes on the west side much is because you can go a long way and wind up nowhere. In four years of exploring back here I've never seen a trace of a human. Just deer, moose and black bear. And me. Thing is, in winter the landmarks are all gone, and this had all the makings of a death march. So instead I took the main fireroad south. Oddly, the north direction was heavily tracked out, but no one had touched it below the intersection. It wasn't steep, but it was clean and I got to practice linking teles all the way down to what we call the Winter Trail.
The Winter Trail isn't on any map either. It's an old game trail we came across while mountain biking in the winter that happens to intersect my trail in a way that allows you to get back to your car. (Eventually.) I'd decided to spend my afternoon setting in a good skin track so next time I skied it would be easy to get back. By now the snow was getting a lot heavier, and it was feeling like work, but the terrain here is flat. I finally made my way to where the ski trail intersects. It looks steeper when you're alone on skis, but hey I was here, so I enjoyed shot after shot of fresh snow, gluttonously consuming every line in sight. Now I could work the skin track in some more - back up the hill to the flat. Good thing for climbing bars.
Three hours later I made it back for my teleconference (this was supposed to be a vacation day, I don't get 3 hour lunches usually) and my legs are smoked. I'd say I did an hour skiing and 2 hours skinning, but the trail is ready. On the way out I saw just endless possibilities, some short, some longer, most treed. Those of you who know the spot can probably follow my tracks, but a guided tour is better. Skins would be required, post holing out of this place would bite. Next snowfall - be there.