the Way of the Turtle

3.9 Mile XC Ski at the Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve
Sunday, January 11, 2009

We got some snow last night and this morning... woo hoo! So after spending the morning being lazy and then shoveling the sidewalk I packed my gear and headed up to the Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve for a little skiing. The main parking area was pretty full (no great surprise) so I headed down to the parking near Clute's Dry Dock and decided to check out some trails I hadn't been on yet this winter.

The path from Clute's Dry Dock to the dirt access road was blocked early on by a fallen tree... after that it was pretty easy going, and generally very good skiing, since not too many folks had been down that far. At the access road I crossed over the old canal and took another trail I've rarely used over to the Whipple bridge. When I ran there last month the bushes were loaded with cedar waxwings, and about the month ago I saw mainly sparrows and, I think, finches... today the bird of choice seemed to be robins, though I also spotted a woodpecker down by the river.

Once I reached the bridge I decided to try to avoid the crowds and looped back toward where I'd come from down along the river. Someone else had already been there snowshoeing, which presented a bit of a challenge - I was essentially bushwhacking along their trail, and snowshoes are a lot more maneuverable than skis! So it was interesting but slow going. Eventually I made my way back to the access road and then followed trails back to where the road crosses the ponds.

Even though it was getting on the later side I decided to ski down the trail on the opposite side of the old canal from where I'd come in. That was tough going in a couple of spots where there were downed trees, and when I finally reached the old drydock I decided I really didn't want to have to make my way past the trees I fought my way over and around on both paths. Since there were both snowshoe and ski tracks on the old canal, I unclipped my skis and went down onto the ice, then made my way across to the dock in the old drydock. Getting up on that was a bit of a trick, but once I'd managed to do so it was a quick trip to the car.

JMH