First tracks

Fresh snow on the parkways!!

Ahh, always nice to finally strap on the boards and get the first ski of the season in. Last nights snowfall wasn’t a lot but it was enough to get me out early for a little ski. In all, about 5cm fell and to my surprise there was probably more snow in town then up in the park. By the time I’d learned this I was already at P10 so I skied up the parkway to the old Western cutoff before turning around and zipping back. While one skater (!) had skied a few hundred meters up the parkway I was breaking trail myself… and while there was barely enough snow to cover the grass..., and I probably went too warm with the wax..., and the snow might not last to day’s end (much less weeks end)… It was still great to be back on the boards. At least a little reminder that indeed winter may actually arrive (at some point) after this long warm fall we’ve had. Met the ski team “working in my trail” as I skied back to the car. While there was no grooming to be had ( and I wouldn’t have expected it!) they make up for it in sheer numbers so the last little descent was on a nicely compacted trail. Now, do I pack away my bike or keep it out for the +12C weather predicted for Saturday?

Calm and quiet at Fortune Lake - still some open water, so no crossing the ponds just yet


Hmmm, someone, with a draggy tail, used my broken trail to ease their way down the hill.

Trail update

A little detour for this winter should make a nice change from the routine.

On an side note, I went back up and rode at the Lac Phillippe end of the park on Monday. It was a cold day indeed that felt like winter (-4C) even if it looked like fall. As I rode around I discovered some new signs (above) that suggest my original assumption about the Pine road trail (50) were in fact correct. Looks like the ski trail will detour around the washed out road for this winter much like the campground traffic did this summer. Probably a good idea when doing earthworks this late in the season. Let things settle over the winter and then “top them up” after the spring thaw. It will add a few hundred meters to the old route and a nice little hill down to (and back up from) the beach area so should work out nicely. While there was activity at the washout the last time I rode through here all was quiet today. There were still a lot of trucks (loaded with fill) driving out to trail 56 so repairs there seem to be continuing.

A cold day at Lusk cabin.... gotta get me some shoe covers as I froze my feet!

I also took the ride up to Lusk lake. As I anticipated the steep chute partway up is badly washed out. Gonna be tricky to ski that this winter but there was some signs of work so perhaps they have a plan to patch it up before the serious snow falls. No work going on on this day so they better get at it... real snow can't be far behind!

Trailwork underway at Lac Phillippe

Been up riding in the Lac Phillippe (and beyond) end of the park quite a bit this fall. It makes for some nice riding when the more southerly trails are overrun with leaf peepers. Further north the parking lots are fewer and farther between and fall hikers usually only make it one or two km's. Beyond that it feels a little more like I have the park to myself. I hadn’t ridden up there much this summer so it was nice to get in and explore a bit. Lots of trail erosion on the main trails after the spring melt and heavy rains of early summer. Certainly the Lac Phillippe campground road got some press after it dramatically washed out in the summer storm but riding the back woods I found all kinds of erosion trenches and damaged trail bridges. These were no problems to ride around/over etc. but with the coming ski season they'd be a bigger problem.

Pretty big Bike Eater along trail 56!

On my ride through the park on Monday it was nice to see crews out working to fix some of these problem areas. I didn’t ride out into the affected areas too much as there were heavy trucks and vehicles rolling along the trails so I didn’t want to get in the way. Still, there was lots of activity in the campground which is “closed for the season” so there was clearly some haste to get work done before the snow flies.

Road washout - the water moved some pretty big trees!

The first big repair is the campground road bridge which washed out in the early summer. It sat all summer looking pretty ugly with the culvert pitched in the air and big trees wrenched aside by the strong forces of rushing water. The heavy rains actually washed out the side of the dam upstream which must have sent a tremendous wave downhill. Back in June a temporary bridge was placed in another location closer to the lake so the campground could function through the summer season. I was beginning to wonder if that would be a "permanent-temporary" fix for the ski trail as well. On Monday however it was good to see some heavy equipment in there removing the debris and preparing for new culverts to go into place. I guess, after a design phase they waited to close up the campground before the heavy equipment got to work.

High hoe clearing the debris to prepare for a new culvert

Of the most concern to me was the bridge at the base of the hill up to Lusk lake. This is a favourite trail and seeing one of the bridge piers collapsing had me worried that the trail would be closed for the season. The bridge itself looked passable for a skier but the heavy snowcats wouldn’t be able to cross and groom the trail up the hill.

Lusk Lake bridge pier looking shaky

Since my first visit in October, it’s nice to see that crews have shored up the bridge. I must say its a pretty ugly "bandaid" approach they’ve applied to the bridge… but I hope it will work. I guess the bandaid approach was employed here because of high costs in other areas. Perhaps next season they will patch up the bridge properly as I think there are a few key flaws to their repair which won’t last in the long term.

How many structural weaknesses can you count - as an engineer, I can see 3 that leave me wondering...

Also at work were repairs to trail 56 which heads off into the woods and up to the Pontiac lookout and Lac Richard beyond. Having ridden through there a couple of weeks ago I had found some pretty big “bike eating” ruts from water rushing down the trails(pictured at the top). It was all well and good to ride around these in the summer but with a blanket of snow these would become a invisible and pretty hazardous crevasses, surely catch skiers out and causing some serious injuries. These washouts of course only occurred in steep parts of the trails so skiers would be going pretty fast when they fell into these unseen trenches. Kind of like an elephant trap! Being in lonely parts of the park would only compound the problem of getting help and extraction of the injured parties. Glad to see those repairs underway.

Trail 56 closed for repair work

Truckloads of fill heading along trail 56 to the washouts

So lots of work going on in the north end of the park. That coupled with big repairs of the culvert on the “Doldrums” – further south - has surely meant a big bill for the NCC this year. Could this in part be responsible for the ski pass price increase? Ah well, glad to see some action which will mean good skiing once the snow flies… which I’m getting really antsy for. My ride on Monday was under sunny skies and +18C!! That’s definitely not mid-November weather and not conducive to snow production.

Lots of work underway to get ready for ski season and beyond

Loon Mountain Treat

I haven’t had much luck with my “Monday’s off” this fall. A colleague of mine takes Fridays off and he has lucked out with warm sunny days on the golf links (his pastime of choice). I on the other hand have gotten cold grey days with an icy rain falling. Perfect weather to get hypothermia – bleah! It was with great pleasure, however that I woke up yesterday to sunny skies and a good forecast so I decided to take full advantage of the weather. Had to run a few errands in the morning but then chucked some gear in the truck and raced off to the Adirondacks. Beautiful sunny drive down and I arrived at the trailhead with a nice “alpine start” of 1:30pm. No worries though, late day sun often makes for better picture taking so I loaded up all the gear and headed up the trail.
Bright colours still to be had - just not primary colours
Today I had picked Loon Mountain as my destination. It’s actually considerably closer to town than the high peaks so it made for a short drive. The hike itself is not too long either at about 3 miles to the summit. With a firetower on the summit to visit I had often wondered why it was not on the official “Firetower challenge” list. I learned this summer that, until recently, the forests around the base of the mountain had been owned by a lumber company and public access was forbidden. Now – after changes in ownership and new agreements with the state… and all the insueing paperwork and legal hurdles - public access had once again been restored (in 2009). The forest rangers have made a pass at remarking the old fire wardens trail and have plans (one day) to restore the tower but for now the trail is somewhat rough with an additional 1 mile or so walking along the old forest roads before getting to the trail itself. Once it becomes “trail”, it starts uphill in a hurry with some pretty steep scrambly bits climbing close to 1000ft in the last mile. Forest rangers clearly had never heard of switchbacks when they built their approach trails. On this day I even got a bit of a taste for winter as the trail got higher. Never enough for the need of traction devices but just a nice dusting of snow as if to say “we are coming!”
Early signs of the snows ahead
Finally on the summit I added a layer and then took time to enjoy the view. Sadly – while sunny when I started, the grey clouds rolled over as I climbed. And not even very interesting clouds either – just a steel grey November cloud deck(a day early). From the look of the high peaks to the south I would guess the clouds were about 5000ft as the summits of Marcy and Algonquin disappeared in the grey. Undeterred though I shot quite a few frames. While the leaves are mostly gone there is still some beautiful colour to be had. Mostly rusts and bronze with interesting red berries on the Sumacs. The mountains take on an interesting skeletal form after the leaves are gone (appropriate on this hallows eve). Searching around the summit, I couldn't find many remnants of the fire wardens here. Not clear (to me) where the warden’s cabin might have been (up high? down low?) but there was a steady line of telephone poles up the trail indicating his (her?) communication system.
Fall colour - blaze orange - as it's that time of year
The tower itself looks to be in rough shape. The first riser of stairs has been taken down and chained to the base. While it would be an easy scramble on the steel frame up to the first deck, I opted against as the stairs above didn’t look to be in much better shape. The steel frame – while rusty – looks to be fine so I expect a repair job wouldn’t be too onerous. But who has the money these days. Not the DEC that’s for sure. They will be cash strapped for some time repairing bridges ripped out by Irene. The views are fine without the tower so no big loss that I stayed on the ground for this peak. Got back to the car around 5pm and then made the drive home. While only about 2 hours from home my return trip was slowed by lots of goblins roaming the streets of the small towns I passed through. Best to give them a wide berth lest you be “recruited” to their undead army.
Winter looming not too far in the distance