Post Olympic Hangover

The last couple of weeks, I have been consumed with sports on TV. Owing to the time difference to central Asia, I found myself up most every morning at 4am glued to sports I seldom see other than once every 4 years. I would also wager I saw more cross country skiing - a sport which I more regularly view on the interweb at any time - than I saw when the Games were on in Vancouver. The west coast tended to have the skiing mid-day (when I'm at work!) but the Russians kindly scheduled the ski races at 4am which is a time I am generally free(sort of)... so it worked out well. In the end though the Games came to a close and with the blowing out of the flame I found myself at loose ends. GLoppet viewing is a nice distraction from Olympic viewing - more fresh air for a start! Having been up for weeks before the sun it was no problem for me to load up my gear and head to the hills for a day. A chance to clear out the cobwebs and suck in some fresh air. To be fair, I had been skiing quite a bit during the Games (thanks to their early start times I had the rest of the day free (if I wasn’t working)!) but never strayed beyond the Parks trail network. I had managed to get out and enjoy some viewing of the Gatineau Loppet and that involves a fair bit of skiing (coupled with some strategic driving) so at least I was outside during the daylight hours. Monday saw the car loaded, the pack... umm, packed and the car rolling south well before the sun broke the skyline. My planned destination was a "ski-shoe” to Seymour mountain. Seymour has a long flat approach (even longer in winter with a seasonally closed access road) and then a short (steep) vertical pitch up the peak... before returning whence you came. I had prepped a set of skis and was ready for a day out but when I arrived at the car park it was clear it wasn't going to go as planned. The previous weekend’s rain and warm weather had turned the snowpack into a crusty mess. Add to that the access road – while plowed for a logging operation but still closed to the general public - was a clean sheet of ice. The fresh snow which the weatherman had predicted was all but non-existent and so I decided to shelve the idea of a ski for a better day when I could find good snow conditions. Got to know this view quite well... hour in and an hour out! As luck would have it the trail head has another good hike up to the neighbouring Seward range a cluster of 3 separate peaks. Still a long walk in but slightly less than to Seymour… and I was here already. So I changed plans, re-jigged my pack and headed off. The opening stanza includes the aforementioned closed access road. A 5 km stroll along the icy road to the summer trail head before the actual hike begins. That was quickly followed by 5 more km along an abandoned woods road before arriving at the start of the uphill travel on the range access trail. It quickly became clear I hadn’t anticipated all that the day would hold. Four short hours from the start I finally found myself on the Seward range and into winter in full force! While it had been quite pleasant down below (a warm -8C) the ridge was a few degrees cooler and a strong breeze was roaring overhead. For the most part the range trail is in the woods but occasionally it pops out to sweeping vistas of these remote mountains (and the full brunt of a winter wind!). Arriving on the range! The access trail drops you essentially on the middle peak of the range - Donaldson - with two peaks at either end - Emmons to the south and Seward to the North. This necessitates an out and back hike to each end of the ridge. While it’s only a kilometer or so to either end of the range, the narrow twisted path is a tough test with ups and downs to negotiate and cripple brush to press through. Winter hiking on these high peaks is often a game of continuously hiking forward doubled over ducking under (through?!) pine branches as they try and resist your forward progress. The summer trail is usually 1 meter down in the snow pack so winter progress puts you up in the "canopy" of the trees... and the canopy is seldom trimmed back for winter travel! A great core workout to be sure. On the plus side the hikes to each peak are relatively short so I ditched my full pack at the mid-point and took only some essentials with me as I forged my way to either end of the ridge. A lighter load was much appreciated and made for speedier progress. Emmons always looks to be farther away... until you're finally there The south end of the ridge was reached uneventfully and the return trip wasn’t too arduous. At that point the mental game creeps in and it can be tough to stay strong and go for the third peak… versus retreating downhill and coming back another day. “Just another km out (and back)” so I – perhaps foolishly – pressed on and made the much more technically tricky climb to Seward proper. The climb had a few more challenges including an icy chute to climb up (and back down later) and a few more feet of elevation to crest. As I approached the summit of Seward I found myself in a somewhat unexpected spot. The last few hundred meters, which I expected to be cut through the same cripple brush I’d been fighting all day(that's the way it was as I remembered it from summer travel) was suddenly above the tree tops thanks to a couple of meters of snow! This left me fully exposed to the artic wind which was raging at this point. Sweat soaked clothes quickly iced over and I dashed to and from the summit disk to get back to the relative protection of the trees. Seward made me earn the 3rd summit. For the next few minutes I ran up and down the last protected pitch to warm up and thereby thaw out my jacket which had become, in the brief moment in the wind, a frozen husk. Not a good spot to be some 5 hours from the car in a lonely part of the park. Still, I knew what had to be done and was soon thawed out. The trek back to the pack was no less tricky with that tough icy slope to down climb but soon enough I was ready to head back out. The last look at the Range.... before the icy "chute" down The walk out was pretty mindless though it had its own trials. The trail off the range descends moderately but seems to go on forever. At the bottom it was back onto the woods road and then the long road walk out to the winter car park. One foot in front of the other and ignore the ever louder voices in my head telling me "we've had enough fun, please stop walking!" Feet barking, body aching… and the car still “Just around the next bend”… which finally came true, but it took more than a few tries. Keep enjoying the little things - sunlight through the trees - and maybe you won't notice the aches and pains... Usually one of the true joys of a long hike in the woods is getting to the car and changing into dry clothes for the ride home. I know that sounds a little like the joy of hitting your hand with a hammer is the delightful pleasure when you stop... but it’s not the only joy for the hike. Sadly, when I got to the car I was somewhat robbed of that joy. After stowing my gear in the back and changing into a dry shirt my hands had frozen into blocks of ice. The car was running and I didn't have the desire (or energy) to do any running on the spot so I bolted into the car and headed off down the road. The remaining tasks of changing and packing the gear were undertaken over 4 or 5 stops every 20 miles or so as I rewarmed in the hot car and drove north bound. Boot off, drive, other boot off, drive some more, pack wet clothes out of the back seat, drive a few more miles, find and put on jacket, drive, find passport and some bridge toll money, drive... not ideal but it did break up the ride home. Hot shower at home finally warmed the core and I slept 10 or 11 hours. Out of curiosity I ran a few numbers on the hike when I got home - 33km and just shy of 4000ft on a remote mountain track. More than I had bargained for when I started the day but my Olympic hangover is gone for at least 2 more years. A set of pictures can be found here. Thanks for the fun Seward... I'll be back one day to visit your brother Seymour(just over on the right)

Halfway through winter?

Winter has been quite good this year. Lots of snow arrived early and stayed! Often those early snows are just a little too light to cover the roots and rocks... or a short melt brings everything back to square one. We've had neither drawback here in town and the skiing has been good. Looks sunny but it was none too warm! As in past years a few of us did a short one nighter at one of the yurts in Gatineau park before Christmas. It’s a good way to unwind before (or during) the hectic holiday season. This year we skied (we'll I did) into Richard yurt. It’s the most remote shelter in the park with a 13km ski... but there is a shortcut. A small snowshoe trail leads just a km from the Eardley escarpment road to the "back door" so to speak and is a well used trail to this yurt in particular. As it turns out we got a significant dump of snow on the day we were headed in so I was glad for the short cut. Hauling a sled of gear in 20 cm of soft wet snow - even for just 1k proved a tough task. The other guys snowshoed (pulling a sled) and it was no easier by any stretch. The payoff though is worth the effort as the Richard yurt sits on a remote lake deep in the park. The night we picked was in fact the winter solstice so moments after we arrived it got dark for the long night ahead. Still, with some good food, some good music and conversation it was overall an excellent retreat. And as always, Dave had the lightest sleeping bag and was first to get up to stoke the fire at 3am – so it all came together as per the plan. A long evening ahead (photo borrowed from BVT) Christmas skiing was a pretty cold affair as the temperature dropped down to the -20's. I skied a couple of nice loops on Christmas morning around P19 at Lac Phillipe which left me close enough to the car to bail out at almost any point if the digits lost all feeling. It was not necessary though as I was plenty warm throughout. From there the season continued with quite a bit of cold weather but good skiing to be had if you could warm up fast enough to enjoy it. Fresh grooming was my Christmas present In January I signed up to help out with the ADK "Winterfest” this year and took it as an opportunity to go down and do a bit of hiking. As it turned out "Winterfest" became "Waterfest" as the mercury climbed to +10°C and it rained (hard!) all day. The Adirondacks have had precious little snow all season and this rain managed to wash it away almost completely. Still, some folks came out and enjoyed the music in the big tent, food and festivities. The hikes in the woods were mostly canceled (as were the ski sessions) and the skating (and curling!) on Heart lake got scrubbed as it took on the more spring like appearance of a pond. Still, I executed my duties by waiting in the driving rain for the (big) crowds to arrive in the parking lot and direct them to the fun - but it was never more than a trickle (yes I get the pun). As a result my task was somewhat superfluous but they couldn't have predicted a light turnout (until a day or 2 out) so I was happy to be available. After my shift I made a hike up Mt Jo and the trail was a cascade of ice and water which was really quite beautiful. Fortunately the µspikes were quite good as the warm temperatures had made the ice quite soft. The utter lack of snow should be the clue that things didn't go quite as planned... Trails of fast melting ice I had been able to predict the weather and opted to drive down a day early to get a "somewhat" wintery hike (before the big melt) in on my own. I opted for a loop over Dial and Nippletop. It proved a nice day although the views were somewhat subpar. It was only barely a winter hike as there was mostly an icy track up to the ridgeline. Only as I got to the last 1/2 mile or so (above 4000ft) did I actually encounter some snow and then mostly only a few pesky drifts. Not enough to warrant the snowshoes though which I had left in the car anyway. The µspikes had served me well on the climb but the descent from Nippletop is a steep chute and I figured - with a little snow over the ice - that it was best to put on the crampons for more security. I haven't used my crampons in a while and they take a little getting used to but, in the end, I was happy to have them as the ice falls were pretty straightforward with them on. You can't move too fast in crampons but once you are comfortable with your foot plants... your feet stay put! Easy to stumble though if you lose focus and errantly catch a spike. The best (and only) view of the day Snowy up top but the views were non-exsistant Back home we went through another cold week or so which turned the ski trails into "white concrete". Easy enough to ski the main groomers but not something you would want to venture off onto the steep and (in this case not so)deep side trails. Fortunately a fresh layer of powder fell on Monday and I took the opportunity to ski some of the backcountry trails. A lot of these trails got closed last Christmas (2012) when we had that significantly heavy wet dump of snow which brought down a lot of trees. The smaller trails never got cleared over the course of the winter (the NCC ran out of money for the work!) so I haven't had a chance to ski a lot of these trail in 2 years. Fortunately a group of volunteers helped to clear out the trails over the summer (many thanks!) and I finally got my chance to ski some old favourites again. I've been waiting most of the winter for a good powder day and Monday was certainly it! Add to it being a Monday and I had the park seemingly to myself. Of course the die hards had already been out and I found most of the good pistes had already been broken out but that didn't detract from my outing. Good day to tackle the "seamonster" So with January now in the books and winter half over I'm looking forward to some good skiing in the "second half". More comfortable temperatures in the short term and some more snow falling as we speak. So much so that I'm not sure any groundhog around these parts will be able to dig himself out tomorrow morning to check for his shadow! That could mean - for me - a visit to "Frank", "Mr Sparks" and "Doug"... And a Scottish fling or two if time and stamina permit tomorrow morning. I’ll have to get the wide boards ready tonight. Its looking like it will be a "Super Sunday" indeed. With luck there will be some skiing in the Adirondacks soon enough as well. Snow levels are starting to rise down there but it still seems like there isn't enough yet to make it worth taking the "Pass" - at least not just yet. Sun is setting later now - Bring on February!

Boom! Winter...

So winter has arrived... and it came in a hurry! A good storm last week left us with almost a foot of base and very good skiing conditions for the end of November. Usually we get to slowly do a lap or two of the parkways on the rock skis as our poles poke through the thin base to the asphalt below. With each click of pole hitting asphalt we dream of the side trails to come. Of course they are usually a ways off as the rocks and roots are barely covered with the thin early snow... but not this year. A lot of the major side trails were pretty decent from the get go and I rarely feel the ground surface as I plant my poles. With some problematic fall training I opted to push pretty hard onto the skis and have managed 7 days of the last 8 on the boards. Bit of a mix of skate and classic but for the most part slow easy distance skiing working on remembering how to slide with sticks tied to my feet. It's coming back to me. I even did an early morning ski this week to enjoy the sunrise and share the trails with some non-skiers. Some trail users aren't as keen on winter Red in the morning?... Today it's rainy and warm... but not as bad as was originally predicted. I feared the base of snow would disappear if it got too warm but I think we'll be okay. The main tracks should be fast and frozen solid once we go back to sub zero temperatures tomorrow so back at it then. Overall a good start to the ski season and we'll see what's to come.

Searching for Winter

Fall starts to drag at this point of the year. The leaves have mostly fallen. The days get shorter and shorter. Nothing but cold and rainy weather.... Preparations for the ski season ahead continue but - in the dark and cold it's sometimes hard to believe it will ever arrive. I have a series of 3 running races I help out with(on consecutive weekends) through this period of the fall and they prevent me from taking long weekends in the mountains but sometimes I can get away for a quick day trip. With 2 of the 3 races in the "bag", so to speak, I decided to head down to the Adirondacks on Monday. The weather forecast was grim for first thing in the morning but showed signs of potential improvement throughout the day. I normally would steer clear of a forecast like that as the mountains tend to hug clouds like a small child hugs a bear at bedtime - with a strong grip that lasts longer than you'd think. Still, I had the day off and things were looking no better at home... so off I went. It would be a good chance to pull out some of the "winter" gear as the colder temperatures meant that the rain down low might be snow up high. I had of course carefully stowed my winter gear last spring so everything would be easy to find... well... I found some of it anyway - enough to be reasonably safe. Hints of winter I like hiking in the late fall. Most might think -with the colours mostly gone - that the attraction would also be gone. Certainly the days are much shorter so - without a headlamp - you have to pick shorter hikes. Add to that some extra care should you be hiking where the deer and the antelope... umm, get shot (wouldn't want to join them). With that in mind though I find that mountains are a nice harbinger of things to come. Often, warm fall weather down low can transition (ever so subtly) to wintery weather as you ascend... and once you top out you can face the full brunt of winter storms and cold temperatures. On the drive down I had my fingers crossed but the rains kept coming. I pulled into Saranac Lake and pulled over to plan (or perhaps re-plan) my day. The weather was easing but none too fast and - at 5C and pelting rain - it was not too conducive to a pleasant hike in the mountains unless hypothermia is your thing. There looked to be some promise though so I decided to stall a bit. Taking some scenic drives in and around, checking out a few trailheads, seeing the lay of the land and in turn biding my time - ever hopeful that the clouds would roll on. By 11 the rain had almost stopped and as I ate lunch the clouds started to withdraw! Angry clouds start to thin Half the day was gone now and I had to plan something a little less ambitious with less daylight at my disposal. Cascade and Porter were close-by so I decided to head there. The trail itself was muddy to start. A dark, black, coffee colour with no hint of the warm, brown, boot-sucking mud the ADK is known for in summer. There were a few people already on trail when I arrived but I still had a pretty quiet time hiking up this popular route. No doubt most who might have hiked on a Monday were put off by the early rains and found something better to do with their day. As I got higher the snow started to get thicker beside the trail and finally at about 3500 feet the trail was indeed snow covered itself. I continued bare booting up the trail as the snow wasn't too slippery but it’s often easier to ascend slippery snow covered rock than descend. By the time I got to the summit block of Cascade the winds were howling over my head and the snow and ice was thick so I dropped my pack, strapped on the µspikes and put on a dry layer or two before exiting the trees. Limited views on Cascade My timing was poor though and I exited the tree line straight into a cloud. The long ranging vistas from Cascades summit would remain hidden today but the clouds were moving fast so I was still hopeful. Back to my pack and then the short walk over to Porter where I arrived to blue skies! I could see now that Cascade was clear but the Great Range to my south was still clinging to the cloud deck. Still it was an impressive view and I filled the camera with as many shots as I could. Sadly winter (like) ascents mean that summit time is often brief. Even with my puffy down "summit" vest I started to chill down after 20 minutes or so and was soon headed down the trail. One last glimpse at a little ledge on the Cascade summit trail and then it was back into the trees for the return trip down. The µspikes did their job and I had no trouble descending the upper reaches of the snowy trail. Soon enough I was happily walking back to the car under warm sunshine and colourful leaves (on the ground). Finally the clouds start to lift But the Great Range resists the clearing trend A quick shot of Whiteface as I drove through town, an awesome roast beef sandwich from my favourite deli and then the satisfying drive home. Winter IS coming. It may be a few more weeks - even a month or two - but it WILL arrive. I can tell myself that repeatedly as the days get infernally shorter and the cold, wet fall marches on. It's always nice to have reassurances though - and finding winter at 4000ft is a nice confidence booster. It will inexorably march down the hill to meet us - even if I have to march up the hill to visit with it for the next few weeks. Whiteface starting to look snowy!

Colourful leaves

Colder days have arrived and there’s even the occasional snowflake spotted floating around. Can’t be long until ski season arrives but until then there has been some good hiking to be had. Earlier in the fall, while it was still quite warm, I managed to get a few days off from work and decided to head down to New Hampshire to hike a few high peaks in that neck of the woods. The weather was forecast to improve all week so I hoped for the best and headed down on Tuesday. After a pleasant drive, I got to Greely Pond trailhead at about 3pm. In spite of the relatively early hour, the hours of daylight have really taken a turn for the worse so I knew I would be pressed for time... but figured I could still get up Osceola and back before darkness. As it turned out it was a tight squeeze and I was perpetually checking my watch and pressing onwards. Not much time to take in the views but luckily (really?) there weren't any views to be had as I climbed into the clouds at about 3000 ft. That meant a short stay at the view points to get a quick drink and move on. Ran into the first snow of the season as I got to the top of Osceola - not enough to justify the skis just yet but it was nice to see and probably the earliest I've seen it in any fall in recent memory. From there it was a quick descent back and a short jog down the Greely Pond trail to get to the car about 6:30pm - still 30 minutes of daylight to spare. Close up "views" today - in this case a rocky crag to scramble up Drove back to Lincoln to get some groceries before bedding down for the night. I was in Lincoln a month ago and it was a bustling metropolis with a grid locked main street and people everywhere at this hour. Tonight, I was the only one driving the main street and the stores were all shut tight - except for the 24 Price Chopper. Clearly summer was over in Lincoln... and I was still a little early for the rush of leaf peepers which came closer to Columbus Day. Low cloud deck over the Whites today After a good night's sleep I awoke to cloudy skies again. Apparently the low pressure system over Nova Scotia had been obstinent and was not moving on as the weather folks had predicted. I drove past a few trail heads debating what to hike and wishing for clearer skies. Having such a long list of hikes I want to do down here gave me a lot of options and I finally decided on the Carter range (in part because I had driven past almost everything else!). To my surprise, just as I was paying for my parking permit, Geoff drove up. He had been one of the regular volunteers I got to know on the Mount Adams firetower project. I had been aware he and a few others had been down here on the weekend - working on a “Presidential traverse” - but I hadn't clued in that he was staying the week with a full agenda of hiking. In the end it couldn't have worked out better if we planned it so we joined forces for the Carters. Carter Notch hut and the next objective - the climb to Carter Dome The hike up to the Carter notch hut (our first stop) was pleasant and all was quiet when we stopped in for a visit. I think we had passed the hut master headed out for his day off so we had the place to ourselves. Looks like a nice place to stay and hike a couple of nearby ridgelines. After a short break we packed up to head up Carter Dome – the ridge to the north of the Carter notch. The wind was howling in the notch and I feared it would be a cold traverse... but 30 seconds up the trail we entered the woods and the (REALLY) steep climb quickly warmed us up. After that first pitch the grade eased and we were now in the clouds so there was no views. We stopped along the way to check out the site of the former firetower on Carter Dome. In truth there isn't much left except the foundation blocks... but for some reason firetowers draw our interest. Soon enough though we were headed along the ridge to South and Middle Carter. I had expected more open areas along this ridge but - apart from the occasional open ledge the trail stuck to the trees. Again the ups and downs were mostly mild so we had no trouble and took quick breaks so as not to cool down too much before heading down the Imp trail to complete the loop. Today's grey weather was certainly a good day for some company so it was an amazing coincidence that Geoff and I met up at the start of the day. Unfortunately our agenda's were headed in different directions for the next day so we parted company here but it was great to see him. Some summit colour replaces the scenic views today Another good night's sleep and - finally - the day dawned sunny and clear. I headed over to the Franconia notch, parked at the Basin and headed up the Flume slide trail. This is purported to be one of the steepest trails in the White mountains and it certainly lived up to its reputation. Lots of scrambly fun though with only a couple of WTF moments along the way. I lost the slide a little closer to the top... but found a good herd path and, after a few more minutes pushing up through the trees, was back on the slide(!) I had lost and then finally crested the ridge. Blue skies and warm sunshine greeted me!! The last rocky scramble to Flume Mt. I took a good rest on Flume before heading over to Liberty. Originally I had planned to carry on up the ridgeline to nearby Lincoln and Lafayette but the warm sun and the prospect of a long drive home at the end of the day convinced me to enjoy some extra summit time on Liberty before making the early descent down Liberty Springs trail. I think this is the 4th time I've been up on the "rim" of the Pemi... and it was the first time I could actually see anything (more than the inside of white clouds) so I wanted to cash in those cards and enjoy the view for a while. Looking over the "Pemi" A full set of pictures from the NH trip are located HERE Leaving Liberty Mt. - I'll be back one day for Lincoln Mt! A couple of weeks later Mike and I organized a trip in the Adirondacks. I had probably missed the peak of leaf season but things were still pretty colourful. We ended up picking the “Soda” range which is a nice loop hike around a cirque of little peaks. The trail is a beaut with all kinds of little view points to stop along the way. An excellent choice for a leaf peeping hike. We took our time and took lots of pictures. It probably was the last warm sunny day of the year for us to hike so we were in no rush. Certainly a good chance to fill the retinas (and photo cards) with colour before the long, monochromatic winter rolls into town. A full set of pictures from that hike are located HERE Perhaps past peak but colourful none the less Still managing to get a little riding in although the colder temperature means more and more layers. The “late” turning leaves are still pretty colourful but it will probably only take one big storm to bring the rest of them down. We’ll see where we go from here as the days get shorter and the first snows (Nov 17th – mark my words…) arrive. Yep, leaf season is all done...

Summers all done...

So summer is truly over now. It's been a busy one indeed this year but sadly most of the workload has been just that... work. Still, there have been a few opportunities since my last post to get into the woods. Mostly they were spur of the moment decisions to throw some gear in the truck and go but we did wrap up the principle work on the firetower this year which was nice. Work on the tower has been a 3 and 1/2 year process so it was nice to see it completed. I put together a photo retrospective of the tower work over those last 3 years which can be seen HERE. What lies forward is some more basic day to day maintenance and perhaps a trail rerouting... but certainly the work trips will be scaled back. It was a truly enjoyable project though so I was glad to have an opportunity to contribute to it. The finishing touch - a new map and alidade for "peak spotting" I also got to get to the Whites a couple of times this year. After one of the Mt Adams(NY) work days I did the rare traverse across New England to climb New Hampshires version of Mt Adams. I must say the latter is a bit more significant a mountain. It had also been a while since I had been up on the "rockpile" so it was a tough reminder how difficult an environment it can be. The long site lines are both a blessing and a curse and the rocky trails are hard sledding. On a relatively beautiful summer day its a hard place to go for a walk... and if the weather is foul... well it's probably not the best place to be at all. Up on the "rockpile" With summer quickly wrapping up I did manage to drive down to Montreal to catch the UCI pro road race over Mount Royal. This year's edition had an exceptional field taking part. At one point, prior to the race start, I was standing within 50 meters of 4 of the last 5 Tour de France winners. Not to mention a lot of the significant players on this year's world cycling tour. As it turns out the course in Montreal has a very similar profile to the World Championship road race course just held in Florence, Italy. With that in mind, a lot of the big names had come to Montreal to test themselves as a warm up for the Worlds. Usually the winner of the World Championship road race comes out of the Vuelta D'Espagne - the 3 week tour of Spain which takes place from mid August to September. Three weeks racing in Spain (and a little recovery time) tends to leave the riders quite fit! This year however, the (just) crowned World Champion (Alberto Rui Da Costa) came to race in Montreal (and he had won the Montreal race 2 years prior as well) so that certainly indicated that most of the teams were right to opt for Canada over the Spanish tour - at least for this year. As always there were copious amounts of photos taken and a full set can be seen HERE Ryder sprinting for the finish! The Army Run in Ottawa is also an indication for me that summer is drawing to a close. I've been involved since its inception in organizing the route for that race. This year we had 22,000 participants in the 2 races (5k and 1/2 marathon) which marks remarkable growth over it's 6 years. It's a bit of a handful but a fun weekend overall. This is the last year of our "contract" with DND so we'll see if we are out there again next year. If not then that might give me one more weekend to go climbing instead so win-win either way that comes out. The steady stream of runners - crossing the bridge On to a busy fall schedule. Seems like each weekend is already booked up with things this year so it should be a quick transition from the colourful leaves to the snows of November (fingers crossed!). Time to start thinking about winter if I'm going to be ready when it arrives!

May flies...

May flies by as it usually does. Too many things to do all crammed into a 31 day month… Someone official should add more days to May, but I don’t suspect that’s going to happen. This year was supposed to be an easy year for me with regards to "Race Weekend" planning. The courses were identical to last year. Apart from a couple of minor tweaks to improve on last year’s version of the races… just print out last years plan and I’m done! Alas, this was not to be as we are all aware. In the 7 weeks after Boston we had a host of additional planning meetings, upgraded our emergency plans, “exercised” our command and control program, added to our security contingent, and gained some new language to our vocabulary. Amongst other things, “curious” will no longer refer to a funny monkey for me.
Marathoners passing the US Embassay Still, with all the extra planning, we had a great weekend and of course there was very little expectation of any incidents (of which there were none). The weather was perfect for a running event - cool and overcast - and by all accounts all the 44,000 participants had a great time. I usually don’t get a lot of sleep over the weekend and this year was no exception. From Thursday to Sunday night I logged about 6 hrs of shut eye – par for the course. Still the event tends to carry me through so no plans of changing my May plans for now.
Runners streaming back from Gatineau An added event to the weekend this year was a “Marathon” relay. In conjunction with the Greek Embassy we had the flame from Marathon(Greece) come across the ocean to Marathon, Ontario (just outside of Carp, population 12). From there we had a relay to carry the flame in to City Hall to kick off the weekend. Ironically the route was 42.2 km! Well, in truth it actually proved a little more as a construction detour around Bronson added about 1 km of distance… but it wouldn’t be summer in Ottawa without some construction to contend with. Not sure if the torch relay will continue next year or not, but it was a fun day out so we’ll see how that goes forward. There's a few photos from the relay here.
The starting line in Marathon! The flame rolls through the construction The weekend before the races I went down to work on the Mt. Adams firetower. It proved a good chance to clear my head before the races began. This was the first “work trip” of the season and so a small group assembled to clear blowdown on the trail and get it ready for the summers visitors. It was a fun group to work with and we cleared a lot of big trees. Someone had loaned us a big 2-man “double buck" saw. It was a bit of a beast but once we got the hang of it, it tore through some pretty serious wood. With the trail now open there is really only one major job left to do on the tower. The floor of the cab is in pretty rough shape so we’ll be replacing the floor boards next weekend. Apart from that and a few other small jobs the restoration is more or less done. Time for a ribbon cutting I suppose. A set of photos from trail clearing day here.
Time for the big saw? Time for the big saw

Transitions

Well I hung up the skis last weekend after a nice ski (and a bunch of short hikes) in the sunshine. It was getting to be more hiking than skiing which is always the cue for me to call it quits. All in all though, not too bad a ski season. Things got off a little slowly but to ski until April 21st is an accomplishment I can’t recall doing in recent memory. I always say, if I can ski into April then I’ve done okay and we’ve far surpassed that. A little snow here and there With the last snow behind me it was a quick change over to the bike. Applying storage wax to the skis and tucking them in the closet left lots of room in the workshop and putting the bikes together was no problem. After a “test ride” in town I took the bike back up to P10 last night and had a nice, quick ride up to the lookouts. In this case it was the reverse of Sunday’s ski with short walks across the snow and easy pedaling on the asphalt. Surprising how much more asphalt had opened up since the weekend but not so complete that I didn’t have to walk a couple of stretches. Can't ride on the trails just yet as they don't open until May 15th (once they've dried up a bit) but the parkway remains closed to traffic for now. It will probably be a while before they get all the debris cleared from the storm back in Decemeber... so some more traffic free riding up there and good times ahead! Nice quiet evening at the lookout Also interesting to see the wildlife having to fight over the available open water. Still a fair amount of ice on the bigger lakes so there was a little crowding on the smaller ponds and some grumpy residents that were unhappy about having new “neighbours”. I’m sure all will be sorted in short order as we get a little more summery weather this weekend and the rest of the lake ice melts away. Getting to know the new neighbours

Still feels like winter... for now

So spring has (formally) arrived. As I write this its +12C outside and there is call for warm rain tonight. The skiing is still passable but with every day like this the snow pack dwindles. The last ski can’t be far off and warm days of summer are already coming to mind. A nice spring ski to Lac Richard I’ve tried to make the most of the last of the snow though. Since my trip to the Dixes – the last of the “winter” - I’ve welcomed spring with some nice spring skiing here in the park and a couple of trips to the Adirondacks. This ski season has been an interesting paradox. We probably got more snow than we’ve had in years… but that very snow led to a considerable amount of branches down and trails closed. The crews worked hard until the money ran out and sadly a fair number of trails never saw the light of day from the early season storm. I didn’t get much “practice” on the backcountry trails although I did get one run in on the Highland fling (so not all was lost). The trail out to McKinstry and the firetower was only cleared about 2/3 of the way out which felt… unfulfilling. Equally a few of my favorite little side trails never got cleared at all. Still, I am grateful for all the trails that did open up again. There will probably be a fair amount of trail work for the crews to clean up all the slash once the snows melt as well.. so that could change the cycling season in the park as well (maybe a longer closure of the parkway - for car free cycling!). Has this little guy been lonely this winter? With winter officially over I got a call from Pete to do a “winter” hike. By the time his winter schedule comes together he often seems to fall just outside of the official March 21 winter hiking limit. Fortunately the mountains don’t care what season you call it and are still pretty wintery well through April (and Pete isn't too particular either!). He wanted to try out some better snowshoes for the vertical pitches so we opted to do a hike out of the Loj where you can rent snowshoes for a reasonable fee. We picked Phelps to hike as it gave us a good climb, some nice views and enough time to get back with the snowshoes before the rental shop closed. As it turned out the views weren’t exactly stellar on this snowy (wintery) day… but all the rest of the pieces fit together. A good hike was had on what was clearly a popular trail. Through the whole of this winter I saw maybe 10 people on the trails on my hikes in the peaks. Today we must have seen 50 or more folks out enjoying the day. The views from Phelps were... elusive Finally, I decided to get back one more time to the peaks before the snow starts to melt in earnest. This past Saturday I went down to hike Cascade and Porter. I have struggled with winter boot options all winter often resulting in sore and blistered feet. On this trip I wanted to do something short and try out another pair of boots – my backcountry touring boots. Add to that I had often thought of climbing a peak to take in the sunrise or see a good sunset. Saturday looked like the ideal day so I hit the trail at the late hour of 4:45pm in hopes of getting up top in time for the sunset. Met a few stragglers hiking out but for the most part I had the trail to myself. It’s a nice little climb of about an hour to the main ridge. From there a short hop over to Porter and then I came back to Cascade to set up for the “show”. As it turns out, an incoming warm front brought a bank of clouds in to (slightly) spoil the sunset but I suppose that’s the risk you take in the “sunset photo” game. It was still nice with the alpenglow on the mountains and the rapidly changing colours. Once the sun finally set I packed up and headed back down under the beam of my headlamp. The ski boots worked pretty well too, though this short hike might not be conclusive. There are a few more "sunset photos" from that hike HERE for those interested. Alpenglow on the Great Range as everything goes pink! So was that sunset the end of winter. We’ll have to wait and see. Perhaps a few more skis in the park still. Maybe a hike or two on the smooth snowy carpet… but for the most part it’s time to start thinking about packing up the winter gear and moving on to spring.