This weekend proved to be some excellent spring skiing – even if it seems spring is arriving a little early. On Saturday Mike and I had traded some voicemails about maybe skiing up to Lusk Lake. I was also eager to ski trail 56 which I haven’t been on this winter and it was beginning to appear like I would run out of time. No worries though If I hustled I could ski 56, cut down to Taylor lake and still catch up to Mike up at Lusk Lake…. Not so fast! With the temperature getting close to double digits on the positive side of the scale the trails were pretty sloppy. As I skied up past Richard Lake Yurt it was clear I wasn’t going to set any speed records getting over to Lusk so I slowed up and enjoyed the skiing with no fixed plan for the day. Turns out Mike got the sunny porch at Lusk all to himself for some time… so I’m kinda jealous in that regard. With the plan ditched I skied up to the Pontiac lookout for lunch and then down the trail to Taylor lake (no crossing the lake today) before turning around and heading back. Trail 56 is a really nice little trail at the extreme north of the ski trail network. I’m glad I got a chance to ski it before it melts away for another year. In the hot sun the snow base was occasionally rotten which made for unexpected sinking of the skis – which requires evasive action to stay upright. Certainly kept me on my toes (or maybe that was the problem?). I skied pretty much on my own all day. I did run across two ladies that had stayed in the yurt for a couple of nights. They were up from Nova Scotia on vacation and commented how Ottawa winters are just like theirs… slushy! I tried to correct them that this isn’t the normal weather for early March but they seemed somewhat suspicious. At any rate they were headed to town to skate on the canal so I expect they would again be disappointed on that regard.

Sunday proved another beautiful day. While it rained all night, by morning it actually cooled down enough for the groomers to roll around the park repairing the tracks… repaired at least for a while until the hot sun started to work its magic. I skied the parkways from P6, skating up to the lookouts and then along Burma before returning to Ridge road and Penguin. I perhaps started a little late in the day which made the ski a little challenging. In the shade the tracks were fast and icy but in the sun they went from a nice velvety corn to wet slush. Made the whole ski an exercise in balance as the skis raced on the ice and braked (hard) on the slush. That said it was a beautiful day to be out so well worth the effort. Ski season almost over? …Not so fast! A big snow storm is coming in tonight. How much will we get? Who knows? Some colder weather later in the week so we may not be done with winter just yet.

Someone else must love spring skiing as well