First Ride of Spring!

It's been a long time since I last posted. Frank and I both got the flu and actually missed three weeks of skiing! Since my last posting I did manage to get out one or two times, skied once around Witch Hole and around the Hadlock Loop another.

Today believe it or not it is snowing, but yesterday it was a warm and sunny 40 degrees so, inspired by a friend, I decided to dust off the bike and take it for a spin. It was great to be back in the saddle. (FYI I adore my bike which I got a great deal on last year, it's a 2007 Cannondale Synapse Carbon 1 as seen in the photo. Frankie has the Carbon 2.)

My plan was to just ride to Jordan Pond House (JPH) and back, and maybe around Ox Hill in Seal Harbor. When I tried to inflate my tires, which according to our bike guru Bob at Southwest Cycles are supposed to be inflated to 120 psi, try as I might I couldn't inflate them past 80 psi. If anyone knows why this is I would appreciate your feedback! Is it because at 40 degrees they're too cold? We have a good pump and I know I had it connected correctly so I'm pretty sure it wasn't that.


I went ahead and rode on my tires inflated to 80 psi and even that little section of the Loop between the Stanley Brook Rd entrance and JPH was pretty slushy with sections of ice, so it was slow going and pretty cold coming down the hill! I got an insane deal on a winter bike jacket from Performance ($20) and wore that, but will wonders never cease, ya get what ya pay for.

I am looking forward to when it's a little warmer. I am really, really looking forward to that brief window of opportunity when the snow has melted on the Loop Road but it hasn't been opened up to traffic yet.

Happy spring!

(The road in the photo isn't the Loop, it's a section of carriage road that goes between the Tumbledown and the Deer Brook Bridge.)

Skiing to the Cliffside Bridge

Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2009 - We had a nice snowstorm on the 3rd with about 4 inches of powder. The storm ended at about 7:00 am today, so I was very eager to get out there. I decided to ski the loop from approx. Jordan Pond House (Signpost 16) to the Cliffside Bridge (Signposts 14 to 21) and then back around to the Cobblestone Bridge (Signposts 21 to 22, then a shortcut through the woods to 24). It was a beautiful sunny day, no wind, 18 degrees. Conditions unfortunately were only medium. Even though there was 4 inches of powder, it was on top of another 4 or 5 inches of snow crusted with ice. Consequently, the tracks were collapsing, ski edges were getting stuck in the sides of the tracks, poles kept getting stuck, etc. But that was only in some spots. I actually started out at the gate which is at the top of Stanley Brook Road near Signpost 29. (I think there's an incinerator there or something, they are always burning stuff.) I wasn't the first in, a couple of other skiers had already tracked it. One of them had the extra-wide skis. I actually met them as they were returning. The fellow with the wide skis was having trouble with the ice and the collapsing tracks.

I told myself I would just turn around if conditions didn't get any better. Fortunately conditions change even when you climb only a couple of feet. Things got radically better after Signpost 15, which is at the bridge over Jordan Stream right near JPH. There was a lot of drifting and windblown ice from there to the stone bridge at the southern end of Jordan Pond. I had to ski through a drift that was probably 2 and a 1/2 feet high. Then climbing up to Signpost 14 the snow started getting faster. I had hoped that the Around Mountain Loop would be groomed because the map on the AWTA website said it had been on the 3rd, but I guess they did it before the storm because it was pristine.

The weather was really crisp and beautiful with snowflakes sparkling in the air. (Photo) The climb up to the West Branch Bridge always seems easier on skis than on a bicycle. The view from there was spectactular. (Photo) The ridge between the West Branch Bridge and the Cliffside Bridge was windblown and icy. I was unable to see the difference between ice and snow because it hadn't been tracked yet, so it was slow going but pleasant. When I reached Signpost 21 I met a couple of other skiers and lo and behold! The Amphitheater Loop had been groomed. It was fun skiing down to Signpost 22. Unfortunately the Little Long Pond loop hadn't been tracked (it is never groomed), so again it was slow going, but not as bad as it was starting out. I took the shortcut through the woods and arrived at the Cobblestone Bridge much sooner than I expected. Jordan Stream is frozen silent now, so you can't count on hearing it to get your bearings anymore. Getting up the hill from the Cobblestone Bridge was difficult, and when I reach the top I was glad to be able to ski back to the car in my own tracks. By the way, in that short amount of time, hikers and dogs had almost already ruined the single set of skier-made tracks. The distance was 4.4 miles and it took just over 2 hours.

Skiing Day Mountain

I forgot to write about when we skied around Day Mountain a couple of weeks ago, I think it was Jan. 17th. We had gotten a couple of inches of snow on top of some packed powder. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday so we decided to ski from Jordan Pond Gate Lodge (Signpost 16) east to the Day Mountain Bridge (That's interesting, I never noticed before that there were two Signposts there, 17 and 37). This is a section of carriage roads which never gets groomed. Conditions were excellent and we quickly arrived at the bridge. Then we had to decide whether to continue east to Bubble Pond, which is usually really fun because hardly anyone is ever there, and it is pretty flat with rolling hills. We never ski around Day Mountain because it's usually unskiable, with lots of foot and dog traffic. But that day it was totally pristine and we decided to do it. It was spectacular as you can see by the photo of Frank looking very stylish in his ski togs.

The skiing conditions were perfect for our waxless skis: ice with about an inch of powder on top. The distance from JP Gate Lodge to Day Mtn Bridge, then around Day Mountain and back was 5.3 miles and it took about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Snowshoeing to the Cobblestone Bridge & Jordan Stream

Today was sunny and about 20 degrees with no wind, a beautiful day. The forecast is for a big snowstorm tomorrow. Because the skiing conditions were so mediocre on Sunday, I decided to give snowshoeing a try. Frank got me some LL Bean snowshoes for Christmas a couple of years ago and the first time I tried them out I got such terrible pain in my ankles and shins I didn't drag them out again...until today. I'm glad I did. I decided to head into the park at the carriage road entrance located at the top of Stanley Brook road. That entrance leads you into the Green Rock area around Redfield Hill (Signpost 29).

The snowshoes were very loud at first on the more packed areas, but I got used to them pretty quickly. I took the shortcut down to the Cobblestone Bridge. (Above, sorry I don't have a winter picture!) It was fun snowshoeing in the deep snow. Jordan Stream was frozen silent. I wished I had brought my skis because it was tracked pretty well there on the road around Little Long Pond, which was a complete surprise. Another surprise was finding that the carriage road had been snowmobile tracked at the Cobblestone Bridge leading west up to the Amphitheatre Loop (Signpost 32) and east up to the Jordan Pond House! The tracks looked perfect and completely unused. I will try to get out there before it starts snowing tomorrow.

I turned east up the hill toward Jordan Stream and had a very pleasant walk there, as always. Coming back I thought I would take the foot trail that runs beside the JPH dormitory. It was blocked by quite a few fallen trees so I had to traipse around in the woods. Then when the tracks diverged I did a stupid thing and chose the tracks that ran into the woods. I ended up having to do a lot of bushwhacking but finally ended up on the right carriage road, at the entrance of Rick Bourke's stables. Snowshoeing was pretty fun and I will definitely do it again! The walk was about 3 miles and it took one hour and 20 minutes.

Skiing to Aunt Betty Pond & Eagle Lake

Yesterday the forecast was for extreme cold but it turned out to be in the upper teens, so we decided to ski from the Parkman Mountain parking lot (Signpost 13) to Aunt Betty Pond (Signpost 11), then to the Eagle Lake parking lot (Signpost 6). We got a late start and didn't hit the trail until 2:15 with the temp. at about 21 degrees. The route was just under 6 miles so we estimated 2 hours which would bring us in before sundown. The first leg of the trail had been tracked, but the track on the left side of the road had nearly melted away, and the newer track on the right side was powdery but kept collapsing under our skis. So the first half was rough going due to constantly switching tracks and sometimes trying the center skate-ski track, etc.

The late afternoon sun enhanced the views, particularly the panorama of Parkman Mountain as seen from Signpost 11.

Conditions were much better on the second leg, but at that point it was after 3:00 pm, the sun was low and the temperature started to drop. Anyone familiar with that section of carriage road between Signposts 11 and 9 knows there is a long, steep uphill that takes you past the Park Headquarters and out onto a beautiful ridge with a panoramic view of Parkman & Sargent mountains. It was almost sunset and it was breathtaking. After that there was a lot of ice in the tracks and it was fast but a little dangerous. We finally arrived at the Eagle Lake parking lot at 4:15. We were pretty cold and tired, and not very enthusiastic about doing this one again!

Skiing Hadlock Loop

Today, Saturday, the forecast was for warm early on, then a rapid drop in temperature. We decided to ski the Hadlock Loop and got a late start at noon. The temperature was about 25 degrees and sunny. The AWTA had tracked the carriage roads again and the skiing was superb. There was just a tad of ice in the tracks which made them really fast. There were quite a few people out skiing, hiking, and snowshoeing. It was spectacular as always up at the Twin Bridges, after which point the skiing is all downhill. The tracks were so fast and it was so fun and it only took us an hour and 15 minutes to ski the loop, so we decided to continue toward the Amphitheatre Bridge and skied to the top of the hill which has a beautiful ocean view. We stopped there for a few minutes to soak up the sunshine. A skate skier came bombing up the hill so we had to move out of the way for him. Then a group of about six people came by. When we turned around to go back, skiing down that hill was incredibly fun. By the time we reached the Brown Mountain Gatehouse parking lot the temperature had dropped to 18 degrees. The distance was around 5 miles and it took a leisurely two hours.

Skiing the Amphitheatre Loop

It was 16 degrees today with afternoon snow in the forecast so, because conditions were so good yesterday, this morning I went over to Brown Mountain Gatehouse and decided when I got there to ski to the Amphitheatre Bridge and possibly to the Cliffside Bridge. It was so nice I decided to ski the Amphitheatre Loop. The distance was 4.8 miles and it took one hour and 50 minutes.