On the way to Catamount Outdoor Center in Williston, Vermont, today, we saw about four cars off the road. It was quite unexpected. However, we had strong winds today and the main road that takes you to Catamount was drifted over by snow in places. I believe the road is called Mountain View Road. This is where the cars were—even Subarus, which are normally so dependable!
Our Subaru made it through, but we didn't push our luck after our ski. We took another route home!
This was my first classic nordic skiing of the year and it was pretty good for December. The Skimeister and I thought we should ski today because it will be warm and super-windy tomorrow. Yuck! You've got to make use of the snow when you can.
We stayed out of the blustery meadows and headed for the woods. Within a few minutes of kicking and gliding I was creating some heat.
Catamount had about 12 km of groomed trails and 9 km were tracked for classic skiing. We followed the tracks and made some of our own. A couple inches of soft snow made a thin blanket on the ungroomed trails.
Starting on Night Trail, we turned onto Geronimo and then went out and around on Sandmans.
There was decent snow out there among the pine trees, but at times I was avoiding chunks of dirt. The trails where a logging tractor and truck had worked were by far the worst, including the western half of Woodstrace (really bad). We shouldn't have been skiing on that dirty, packed-down road left by the loggers. I hope they won't be logging all winter!
The loop gaves us a nice afternoon workout, however. I had been doing house chores all morning. The ski loop was just what I needed before the start of a work week that will offer some skiing-challenged weather. And heck, cross-country skiing beats jogging any day!
