If it's not wintry in your neck of the woods, then you have to head to higher ground. It was down-right snowy up at Bolton Valley's backcountry trails today in Vermont.
The Skimeister and I went for an afternoon tour — our first of the season. We noticed more snow the higher we went. Boy, I was feeling it as I slogged up the Bryant trail! But the Birch Loop trail brought welcome ups and downs through about 11 inches of fresh snow.
The trees had snow on them and we came across moose tracks that sunk deep into the snow by the side of the trail. I thought perhaps this would be the day that I'd see a moose at Bolton, but no such luck.
Many of the waterbars and streams still need to freeze over and fill in, so we had to keep looking ahead to see what was coming. But we got some great turns in the powder. Again, with these telemark turns that I haven't done since spring, I could really feel it in my quads!
We ended up catching a dramatic orange sunset as we descended Gardners Lane to Big Blue and some unmarked trail (may have been Coyote) that deposited us at the World Cup trail. We made a few more turns on the Practice Slope before making our way back to the nordic center. Down here some prickers and rocks were poking out of the powder.
The trail at the base, near the condos, was windswept with grass showing through. A look up to the ski area showed their new wind turbine was really cranking, and I have a feeling it has been for much of the week. It looked like the wind had swept a lot of the snow off of the exposed liftline runs on the mountain. Thank goodness for snowmaking!
That's one of the benefits of skiing in the woods; it's not so windy! We opted for backcountry skiing because today was the colder, windier day of the weekend. I was generating plenty of heat.
It was great to be out in the woods again. I'm looking forward to many peaceful backcountry outings this winter.
