North Side Exploration and Loop

Did a little exploring on the North Side Trails. Went in on North Loop Road from Rte 29 and skied it all the way to the bend where the trail heads toward Rockwood Lake. Instead I bushwhacked straight ahead and found the trail that is growing in from lack of use all the way the northern property boundary of the state forest. This place needs a chainsaw! I ended up in someone's backyard, a yellow house. Somewhere here there is supposed to be a way to ski west to the reservior to do a big loop.  I couldn't find anything going west. I skied back to the B-Road  trail and skied it east to Rte 10, skied to Rte 29, walked gingerly across Rte 29 and then skied the Forest Edge Trail all the way back to the parking area. A three hour tour with a lot of exploring. Snow is in great shape with a heavy duty base and 4" of powder over the top of it. All of the trees laying on the forest floor are covered now.

I skied my Fischer Outtabounds for the extra floatation on these untracked trails. Only the main trail was broken out by a snowmobile. All side trails were untracked. The 88/68/78 are noticably slower than my Glittertinds that I've been skiing lately.

Deep Snow on New Year's Day

Hoorah, the trails are next to perfect right now! Some, but not all, have been tracked out by skiers and snowshoers. There's plenty of unbroken snow on the lesser used trails. In many places snowshoers and skiers have made individual tracks, which helps. No snowmobile use here at all.

Anywhere between 18" and 24" is in the woods today and it is fresh and so nice. The latest snow last night dropped a few inches of higher moisture content snow on the powder base, but without splitting hairs the snow is the best today in two years.

Arrived around 2:30pm. 35 degrees. I skied the Roadside all the way to the east gate and then turned into the forest. I had tracks ahead of me all the way. It was kick and glide heaven down a broken trail, with snow hanging in the trees and the sun low in the sky and throwing a warm glow through the tree tops. I skied the length of South Loop road and then connected with the C-Connector Trail and skied that almost to Big Bowl. I turned here and doubled back on the tracks to D-Spur and nearly skied out to Rte 29. I decided to do a bit more climbing and skied up the Camp Road trail and boy does that trail climb very steeply, then descends back toward Rte 29. Exited about 4:30pm, last car in the lot with the sun having set and a pink "alpenglow" just clipping the tree tops. Just in time to get back in my vehicle with my 20oz. tea still warm in my insulated mug. There's a good day.

Fischer Snowbound Outabounds  88/68/78
Three pins and leathers
Temperatures were nice for a thick wool sweater over a long sleeve base layer.

Stephens and Cascade Ponds near Blue Mountain Lake

Hard to believe I never skied Rockwood this winter. Long story short, I didn't go out probably 4 weekends due to the severe cold, negative wind chills, and also planning for a fishing trip to the Florida Keys which took up a lot of my time.

So I hope others had a fine time at Rockwood this winter.

I skied Stephens and Cascade Ponds from the Lake Durant Campground near Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks yesterday. It was very good, with at least 18" of consolidated snow in the woods, with a thin layer of new snow on top. Bluebird skies all day. The ponds were just perfect skiing. There is so much ice to come off still. The Sacandaga River at Wells NY is still locked up in ice, with two days to go til trout season, ha!