Every year there is one weekend where I get in what is probably the last ski tour. The weather will be warmer consistently. The snow will be slushy. Could be the end of March. Could be early May.
But it will happen.
I am usually ready to transition to hiking, backpacking or even early spring camping/hiking trips.
This year was no exception. I am off to points south this weekend, on call the following weekend…and who knows what April 15th will be like?
But what a last tour if is indeed the final Nordic tour for this season.
A 6+ hour trek through good snow. We touched upon some areas where people normally don’t ski and even went off-trail a bit.
A wonderful tour.
Joining me would be Mike who, along with his girlfriend Rachel, recently moved to Colorado.
I’m doing my small part to show them some good areas. 🙂
Mike putting his engineering degree to good use with the snow basket repair.
We started at the somewhat obscure trailhead at Beaver Reservoir. The tour started uneventful enough until just about the wilderness boundary. Then the snow basket broke. We MacGyvered a repair to the snow basket that held until the last half of the trip. Just long enough!
After the quick pitstop for repairs, we skied on. Soon the wilderness boundary at Coney Flats was reached.
At Coney Flats, the snow was really coming down. The divide was obscured in the distance.
We followed a jeep road briefly, but it soon became obscure. No matter, we made our own route through the powder.
No one was to be seen. It was quite possibly the best part of the trip. Fresh snow, some wonderful downhill glides and some beautiful terrain.
We soon reached a popular jeep road and saw quite a few ski tracks. These tracks would not last long, though.
Soon, we were breaking trail again. We hooked onto the single track and skied down into valley.
A brief break was had near Tilmberline Falls. We again saw ski tracks.
We reached our valley, climbed back up via trail and then made our way to the car.
If it was the last tour of the season, it was a great one. We’ll see what kind of snow dumps happen in April or even May.
In the mean time, the someone and I have a three day trip to New Mexico this coming weekend.
From the land of snow to the Land of Enchantment!