JERRY'S HOLLERIN'

 

There's snow in the forecast, but too little and too late.  The skis are already up in the rafters and the mountain bike is on the stand getting an overhaul.

 

Locally, the woods are filling in quickly with budding leaves.  Soon, they will shut out not only peering eyes, but also the sunlight that is necessary for the huge variety of wild flowers that are currently all over the woods.

 

Over the weekend, K scored a big connection with another key landowner upon which the Sweet Spot's trails are laid.  Atta Girl!

 

We've had a string of extraordinarly nice spring days this year.  Of course, that put a crimp on skiing in short order.  After the natural snow left, the plan was to poach Mt. Pleasant for a run or two, but by last weekend when I finally got around to it, I'd missed the chance.

 

Thursday evening, we got lucky.  While the rest of the gang saddled up for a road ride, we opted to make a run out to Peak 'n Sneak and ski the dregs.  Got there just in time, too.  Temp was mid to upper 60s at 6:30P and the Peak was buzzing with golfers and some sort of running event.  After scoping things out, it appeared that the Sugar Shack hill was all that was left that offered a decent shot at a connected top to bottom run.  We found the snow to be aggressively sun cupped and awfully dirty.  A half inch of loose corn/ice lay on top of the remnants of the man-made ski base.  It made for fine skiing and I was quite pleased to be able to post a couple of runs that fixed the jones for those turns.  It was actually fun skiing this stuff and, ought to give me pretty resonable claim to the last full runs at the Peak for this season.  Tomorrow, I doubt if it will remain connected. 

 

Here's a link to a video of the first run down:

 

 

Yup, spring is here.  The local snow cover is not.  We'll post some wrap ups when things slow down a bit.

There was a slight delay wrapping up the business end of things on Thursday.  We got back to the crib at about 6:30 and had to hustle to beat the fading sun.

 

It was another mild day and the base was quite loose.  It appears that local skiing is withering fast, but we still found some fun:

 

 

 

We hustled up a sweet ski after work on wednesday.  It was another warm day - and there was no sense holding back and hoping for it to harden up again.  Even the snow gage is fixin' to retire:

 

 

The hike's getting longer to find the snowline.  I didn't find connected stuff until I reached the top of the ridge.  But, at least it was largely intact.  The trail up in that area is vehicle-size in width and, the sun works over the trail where the canopy doesn't provide as much shade.  But simply moving 10 yards into the woods, yielded more than ample snow.

 

 

I was tempted to head north to inspect possibilities, but limited daylight sent me cruising over to play in the ravine off Janosic's nose.  It has held up well in there, and offers all sorts of diversions, albeit a little tight.

 

  

 

We banged around till near sundown, finally following the crick down to Draketown Rd until it petered out of snow.  The walk back home is getting longer every day. 

Monday was a rain out.  And it rained enough to put a dent in things.

 

Tuesday, April Fool's Day, didn't quite work out as planned.  I was hoping that we'd pull cold enough temps overnight to reset the base for a quick morning ski.  But, at 6A when I fetched the paper, it was still a warm and loose base.  With 2 days of warm temps expected, it wasn't looking like our base was going to last much longer.  The unfettered tour is just not coming back this ski season.  So, I blew off the morning ski.  I figured if I was going to have to settle for sloppy snowcone snow, might as well wait until after work.  This schedule shift allowed an extra 20 minutes to sit on the back deck with a coffee and watch the final remnants of the "snow gage" melt away.  Here's a pic of the gage:

 

 

Tuesday's work agenda sent us through some of the region's classic snowier areas, but, the report is grim for just about everywhere.  We left the Sweet Spot and zigzagged over to do a drive-by of conditions on upper Smedley Rd. - and they looked decent in terms of coverage.  Dropping down into Waterford, most of the snow cover is lost at lower elevations.  We jumped on 408 out of Cambridge Springs and cruised through Townville, and Troy Center (which holds nice terrain but not much in the way of snow).  Next was Wallaceville, which held some snow back in the woods.  Dempsytown was burned dry and Two Mile Run Park, on the upper elevations, held skims of snow in some areas, but I could not see much connected.

 

At the end of the day, we returned to the Sweet Spot and found we had more snow left than any place I'd been all day.  The afternoon was relatively sunny and the temps were in the 50s, so I wasn't expecting much in terms of a quality base.  Didn't have much either.  The hike into the woods is getting longer, but once you got up on top of the first ridge, you could pick your way around fairly well.  We probably had a 4-7" base in those areas that have held snow.  The actual ski trails are starting to get chopped up with burned out spots, and it's better to just pick clean line-of-sight shots and ski whatever's in front of you.  I have been making some notes for moving sections of the trail next year in order to position them in the high snow retention aspects.

 

We jumped across Old State and was pleasantly surprised to find a snow pack in the tight parts of the valley to hold 10-15" of firm, old base snow:

 

  That's a very skiable slope behind the crick, too!

 

The valley bottom has room for a nice trail that I've roughed in, and you can get a fair rhythm going.  A little saw work during the summer will clear up some annoying stuff.  Everything was feeling very springlike.  The sun - even though it was setting - could still be felt coming in through the trees.  The crick is flowing pretty fast, but can still be jumped.

 

All in all, Tuesday evening's ski outing was pretty sweet - for skiing backcountry in April!

 

  

 

 

 

Sunday March 30 Trip Report

Thankfully, the weather forecast (which looks absolutely awful) has allowed for another day of glorious sunny spring skiing before the bottom falls out.

We got the Scottman up and out of bed early Sunday, and he arrived at about 8:15.  The morning temps weren’t quite as low as Saturday, but the snow was apparently going to hold hard for a good chunk of the day.

So, the first thing we did was hustle on over to Waterford for an Amish breakfast to fuel up.  I absolutely needed to eat, because I’d pulled a migraine Saturday evening and felt like I’d been beat up. 

A good breakfast, the potential for one last day of go anywhere sliding and, Scott’s gung-ho ski attitude kept us from lingering too long over the NY Times.

By 9:30, we were climbing Hermit Jim’s Main St. trail.  I had plotted a route that I’d hoped would be favorable as the sun moved across the sky, but, it was hard to keep to the prescribed route as both of us were sorta just cruising around, letting the terrain and the snow dictate exactly where we went. 

Eventually, we jumped across Old State and spent some time slashing saplings in a relatively open area parallel to the road and running down to the creek.  We’d have stayed longer, but the copious sunshine had me nervous.  Still, at 11:40, we were riding on top of very solid glacier.  Sure, the get around was a little chattery, but the speed was fantastic.  We clambered across the small crick at the foot of Janosik’s Nose bench a couple of times, seeking poaches wherever our eyes were drawn.  (I have to admit to a couple of bad picks and, we found ourselves in pitches that were either waaaay too tight or too steep.)

Ultimately, we climbed up and onto the Draketown Rd. exit trail from Harv’s B-side trail system.  We worked up onto the ridge until we ran into a burned out field top, where we reversed, ducked back into the ravine and posted a nice long run down to Draketown Rd.  This was very satisfying – allowing us to hook up sets of turns in several good stretches.

At the bottom, we crossed the road and ran a drift line all the way back to the main branch of Little Conneautee crick.  Here, as I’d hoped, we found solid coverage and lottsa shade from the pines that are interspersed throughout these woods.  This trip, I was looking to avoid getting anywhere near Leon’s, so we headed south along the stream on the opposite bank that we explored last week.  The east side of the stream bank butts up against a cow pasture, so it sort of takes on a different flavor than the trails in the more wooded west side of the stream.  Still, it was all gently downhill, following the stream.  We ran along it quite a ways before reversing back north just before we reached Laycock Rd.  The original plan was to head back up through Coyote Hollers and exit at the top of the ridge on Cy’s trails, but at 1:15 or so, the snow turned on us.  It rapidly went through, off ‘n on slow/fast spots, then just slow, then sticky, and finally started to implode.  It was time to head back.

We wrapped our ski up with an extended hike with our skis hoisted high on our shoulders and chirping birds and squawking geese all around as we cut a long diagonal back to the crib through a field that only hours ago was covered in snow.After a late spring ski like that, who knows?  I think I could put ‘em away on a note like that.  Unfortunately, I’m already scanning the ridges for hints that some protected face has held a closer grip to it’s remaining snow.  And, we’ve still got to put a late season poach on for the remnants of stuff down the road at our local ski area.  I’m pretty sure Ullr has abandoned his post at this point.  Hiking will soon become a greater percentage of any future ski outing, but there’s never a better ski than one that’s earned.

We started out Saturday morning just right: Sunshine coming off a pretty cold night.  Temp @7A = 14

 

At times during the morning, we had a clear blue, cloudless sky.

 

A ski group of 4 (myself, Tom, John and the Doc) left the crib at 9:30.  Hardcore attitudes percolated right from the start, with John and Doc refusing to take the skis off for the short 50 yard hike to the snowline.  Oh, there was snow - a thin skim - that I was able to snake my way through, but it's a downhill entry into the woods and the spotty entrance snow was ultra hard and fast.  We had one skier down within seconds and thankfully avoided the wet seep he was trying to jump across.

 

The march up Hermit Jim's trails to the top of the first ridge is getting sketchier every day, and we really didn't land on fully connected cover until we approached the top.  From there on out though, it was deluxe sliding.  The snow pack was sooo hard that we had Tom ditch the snowshoes and he did quite well ambling along on foot with just his hiking poles.  It would not have been a good day to put a novice on skinny skis, and I'm pleased that we didn't because that allowed us to motor around unfettered with excessive crash and burns.  I tried to avoid nasty and gnarly stuff on this tour, but still could not resist shooting the long winding downhill that starts out in the corner of a field at the top of the ridge and runs down through open field growth and small trees.  I personally found it eminently carvable, and used just about every means available in the skills quiver to negotiate the run.  Thankfully, conditions did not require any jump turns, but you did need to be on top of your quick switch technique.

 

 

Lacking any edges, the other fellows had to take a more restrained approach, and opted to traverse the tricky stuff.  Even snowplowing was a challenge, given that the surface was so hard and there was really nothing on the surface to push against.  At first, I felt bad that I'd dragged 'em down the run, but then rationalized that this outing might help them to recognize how much freedom is afforded when the base is glacialized and, that the right gear (i.e. metal edged skis) can make a huge difference in the skier's capabilities.  Unfortunately, the reality is that specialized gear represents not only a cash outlay, but the retail ski industry, in most markets, is afraid to invest in the wider range of inventory required to adequately promote all-around skiing.  If an adventureous cross country skier is enthusiastic about developing his skiing skills - at least in this region - when you walk into a store, there's nothing there.  Retail remains very much focused on entry level touring and a smattering of fancy skate-ski gear.  Oh well. 

 

 

Our tour continued on and eventually ended up at the very northern top of the Sweet Spot's trails.  Here, the trail loops back to the south and posts a long gradual run down one of the interior ridges.  This section of the trail has become one of my favorites, largely because I'm a lazy skier and really enjoy the extended opportunity to coast on this run.  We trail-skated about 80% of it, and I got great enjoyment out of riding up on the hummocks both on and off to the trail side, using them as launching ramps forward.

 

By 11A, the sun was beginning to work over the surface of the snow pack a little bit, and conditions improved as the skier could begin to count on "the peel effect".  (Just enough looseness in the snow at the surface that skis now had something to push against.)

 

All in all, it was an excellent ski.  I even drafted Tom to act as a sherpa and he brought the Cousin Ole' track setting gear down from the ridge.  Thus marking a mental step in shutting down ski operations for the season.

 

Still we closed out Saturday still holding great potential for a do-over on Sunday!