First tracks of the season

Looks sketchy to ski....but it was a delight!
I hadn't really expected Fridays snowfall to account for much so Saturady morning I went up to the park to go for a run on Ridge road. There was indeed some snow down but not enough it seemed to matter when it came to skiing so I headed off towards Keogan without much thought. When I came out on the parkway I was surprised to see such a nice base down. Seems the blend of freezing rain along with a few cms of actual snow formed into a nice solid crust over the asphalt. Not enough to help with the gravelly trails of Ridge road but it looked to be quite good for skiing on the smoother roadways. With that in mind I turned tail and bolted back to the car, drove home, changed and grabbed a pair of skis before heading right back to the park for a ski. The conditions were surprisingly good. Just a cm or so of snow packed down by numerous skiers made for easy skating. Occasional grey patches of asphalt peeked through but they were covered in a layer of ice so the skis floated over most anything they saw. I skied up to the lookouts before the day started to close in on me but it was a nice treat.

Climbing Black Lake
Sunday I skied from MacKenzie King up to the lookouts and again the conditions were pretty good. A little sketchy beside Black lake but all in all another good ski. Tuesday the rains and warm temperatures are sure to wash away this tenuous snow but I think I'll head out tomorrow morning to get a few more kms in before it disappears. Long range is looking promising for some significant snowfall but who knows if/when that will actually pan out. In the mean time strike while the (wax)iron is hot...or rather while the snow is cold.

Nov 23 - 28th - What a difference a couple of days makes

Remembrance Hike

Last Thursday was another beautiful Remembrance day and time for our annual “last of the good weather “ hike in the park. Bryan, Mike and I decided to head up to Lac Phillippe this year and maybe walk up to Lusk cabin. Add to that Bryan had a new camera and was itching to “break it in” (not literally of course) so we met up at the visitor center, dropped one car and then drove up to P19. Walked in along the closed campground road and dropped down to the beach for a little bit to take some shots of the birds and the sun shining on the lake. After a loop through the campground we walked up to “Phillipe” cabin to have a quick snack. Twas here that a crew of four CF 18’s circled low over us in an impressive display. I suppose they were killing time before their Remembrance day fly past of the cenotaph downtown. They actually made two passes before roaring off into the wild blue yonder all in tight formation.

Birds flaunting the rules
After a short break we opted to head towards Taylor lake rather than up to Lusk. Not sure why we chose that option but there you go. No fixed agenda so no harm wandering where we like. Interesting to see a lot of dump truck traffic on the road out to Taylor Lake. Seems they’re re-grading the road around the lake with some fresh gravel. I checked carefully for shards of glass mixed in the gravel as we walked in but didn't spot any. Then again, perhaps my qualifications as a construction materials engineer aren’t up to scratch here and we’ll have to wait and see the true experts pass judgment on the quality of the job ;-).

Fisheye mirror - presumably to watch for oncoming hikers

We stopped at the Taylor lake yurt to have a little lunch. My stove is in some need of a little service but I finally managed to get it fired up long enough to heat up some soup. The lunch spot seemed like a good idea at the time but halfway through our meal the construction crew finished their lunch and fired up the graders and vibratory compactors. Bit of a raucous din ensued which wasn’t really our game plan for a quiet lunch spot. Ah well. With the noisy machines on the roads we decided to loop back on trail 55 in the opposite valley to get some peace and quiet. Beautiful trail through there. Certainly a favourite ski loop but today the waxing was a little tricky. All in all a beautiful day and a good one to take some time in remembrance of those that sacrificed to let us enjoy the things we love.

Lunch shared with a vibratory compactor... nice :(
Today I took some time to roller ski up to the Champlain lookout. I’ve done a little roller skiing this fall on the D-loop and out at the Lac Phillipe campground but this was the first time this season up the big hills. Haven’t done much road biking up there this summer either. Is it me or did they make the climb up the Fortune parkway bigger over the summer? ... maybe just seems that way. Guess I’ll have to go up it a few more times before the snow flies to “recalibrate”.

Gasp, wheeze... perhaps I should have ridden my bike...

"Mother Nature is teasing us..."

First tracks
Those were my buddy Pete's words a few weeks ago when "first snow" reports started trickling out of the West and even Lake Placid which got some early snow. "That may be true" I told him "but she doesn't tease us with snow in June (despite what the Northern Pikes might think)". She starts to work her magic in October and little by little we move inexorably towards the real stuff. Compactable stuff. Base building, powder covering, skiable snow. Last weekend we got another tease... but at least it was here as opposed to some far-flung ski locale. Another tease to be sure but at least - to a degree - it was skiable. I got a little skiing in on the waxless boards but skiing along the grassy shoulder of the parkway has never been my thing. I quickly turned back to the car and strapped the roller skis back on. The real stuff will fall soon enough and with it the season will begin in ernest.

Patience (and more rollerskiing) is a virtue.


Not quite ready for Penguins