Friday, November 25, I drove north to the Winona State Forest and tried to ski.
This was a test of my knee and my new Prius's ability to go where no snow plow has gone before.
There were heavy lake effect snow bands showing on the radar so I waited for a while, but about 10:30 I decided to try it. I hit the snow about 10 miles south of Sandy Creek, and within a few miles traffic had slowed to about 12 mph, after seeing a car off in the ditch on the left, and one on the right. I got off the exit and it was nearly a white out. Through Lacona I drove slowly, but never slipped a wheel. I got to the trailhead parking and made a 3 point turn in the road and parked on the shoulder. There was a 4 wheel drive behind me from Lacona that pulled in and they were also skiing. I went up Winona Way, while they turned up Bill's Belly. I think I was the very first to ski Winona Way this season. If the sign in register is to be trusted, I was the first skier there this season. Of course, none of the other people I saw there that day bothered to sign in so who knows.
The skiing was terrible, as the ground is not frozen. There was a foot of new snow that packed down and stuck to my waxless skis. I skied out and took a few photos and turned around at 35 minutes. I decided to try show shoes, and went out on them for 40 minutes. On the snow shoes, I took Bill's Belly. It was kind of wet, but awfully pretty. By this time the snow had completely stopped, and the drive home was 65 mph all the way.
Sunday, December 4, I drove north to the Winona State Forest and did ski. Here is a link to the state DEC trail map of the area http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/reg6/dlf/winona.pdf.
It looked on the radar like it had snowed all night on the Tug Hill Plateau, and the lake effect band seemed to dissipate in the morning, so I decided it would be good driving and good skiing. It was good driving, and I got there fine. I was the only one there when I arrived about 9:30. I signed in and took off up Wart Road. It hadn't been plowed but the 4 wheel drives had been on it, so I stayed between the tire tracks.
Turning up Winona Way, I couldn't find my track from last week, but of course it had been 65 in Syracuse and probably 50 here, so the snow had all melted. And strangely enough, there wasn't that much fresh snow. Maybe it had fallen between home and here. Seemed like the farther north I went, the less snow there was on the ground.
There were places where I broke through the ice forming. Then my skis got all clumped with ice and wouldn't glide. So I would stop to knock the ice off. This was avoided after the first stop. I skied up Winona Way and then right onto Hawley Road up to Bargy Road, where I turned left and skied north. A truck had also been up Bargy Road, but the skiing was much easier in the road. The snow was deeper than in the woods and of course much flatter and without potholes, downed branches or roots.
At the corner of Bargy and North Church, I stopped for a little snack - I had been out about an hour. The skiing was much better today. I covered in 23 minutes what took me 35 last Friday. I was working on my form, trying to remember everything Blake had tried to teach me. Of course, with all the atrophy going on in my legs and above, fatigue quickly broke down my determination to use proper form. While I munched on a fig bar, I tried to decide if I should cross North Church, or go back the way I had come, but ski over Hawley all the way to Wart. I decided to push on, and that I should be able to reach the left turn onto Hessel Road in less than another half hour. That would put me out 90 minutes, and if I couldn't be more creative, I'd just ski back and have 3 hours.
Turning left onto Hessel, the wind was in my face and it got a little cool. So when I got to Frank's Fancy, I turned left. That quickly joins Winona Way and I turned south. Before I knew it, I had skied across some deep water and broken through, getting my left boot full of ice cold water. Yikes! And the next thing I knew, I was in it again and got both boots full. I decided to be a little more careful and to keep moving so my feet didn't freeze.
At the junction, it was tempting to go left, because the sign said "Winona Way to Parking Lot," but consulting the map, it looked like right onto Jimmy's Jaunt was the best choice. So that's the way I went. There was one deep ravine that I didn't dare to ski through, so off came the skis and I walked down. You can call me chicken but I knew I would go fast and fall hard, since my legs were completely fatigued by now. At the junction with Shady Shuttle I saw the beautiful stone wall and took some pictures.
Out on Wart Road I met a guy on a 4 wheel ATV training his dog teams. The truck with the kennels back in the parking lot had more dogs in it waiting their turn to run.
There's a plot from my heart rate monitor (with elevation) and the GPS map and elevation profile of my track. I was out 3:25 minutes and covered 9.35 miles. Good thing I have learned to not overdo it!
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Earlier this week I was browsing the Tug Hill Ski Club site. I saw a message to skiers, that if you were skiing at night, please wear reflective outerwear so the groomers could see you. It made me think about skiing at night. I thought about it all week. This morning, I got up about 0130 and went for a night ski. There was no grooming in evidence, but it was a blast!
I started skiing about 0430 and skied until past first light, and finished around 7. I wore out a set of headlamp batteries and part of another set. I remembered to take my little headlamp to use while changing the batteries in my big headlamp. When I got to the trailhead, I realized I had forgotten my GPS and my map, so I stayed on known trails. I went up Winona, then right on Hawley, then up and back Bargy to North Church, then right on Hawley to Sally's Ride, back to Winona, and then Bill's Belly back to Wart Road.
I didn't see any wildlife, but I saw lots of reflectors along the trail (red ones by bridges look like animal eyes!). I saw one light out in the woods but I did not investigate. On Bargy road I thought I saw another one, but it was my lamp reflecting off the house windows.
