Saturday, December 20, 2008
What a great day for skiing... instead of ending some time after midnight, we continued to have snow flurries for much of the day today. Whether because of the weather or holiday shopping or who knows what else, there were very few people at the Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve... I saw five other people out on skis, and signs that someone had been snowshoeing, but that was about it.
Snow was about a foot deep. In some spots I was following previous trails and in some spots I was breaking trail. Slow going and definitely more work than on a well-groomed surface, but there's something about being the first person across a stretch of unbroken snow that's just really, really cool. And unlike the last time I was there, the airport was fairly quiet... only one plane in the 2 1/2 hours I was out.
Just to be different I followed one of the loops I usually run backwards. Very flat terrain, which is a big part of why I decided to ski there. Lots of trees and branches down from last week's ice storm, but most of it was relatively easy to either go over/through or to bushwhack around. Plowing through the snow with no one else around... what a great afternoon!
A various points I had woodpeckers, chickadees, cardinals, and what were probably sparrows keeping me company (well, flying off when I tried to take pictures of them) - they were cleary very busy trying to find food. No larger birds in sight, possibly because most of the marshes and ponds were frozen over.
I don't get out on my skis nearly as often as I'd like... partly because of lack of snow, partly because I'm not skilled enough to ski at night, and partly because my primary snow sport is snowshoeing... but I really enjoy skiing and I really enjoyed this afternoon. With luck we'll have ample snow this winter and I can get in more skiing in addition to all the time I spend on snowshoes.
JMH
