Great Expectations

Actually, after back to back 40 degree days in January (who would have thought?), Mike and I had pretty low expectations for snow conditions this past weekend, but headed up north anyway. 

After having switched out the carbides on my sled, we loaded up the trailer and headed to Gorham on Friday. As I said, our expectations were pretty low, but we figured we would go, see what it was like, and decide on our ride as we went. About 85 miles later, we returned to the truck, grinning like little children just in from a snowy recess. The trail conditions had been AMAZING (well, ok, there were 2 trails that were pretty terrible), and we had also ridden places we'd never been before.

On Saturday, we were torn about where to go and do some skate skiing. We looked at heading to Jackson, which was sure to be busy. We talked about Bretton Woods (we had ridden past there on the sleds, and snow cover looked good) but didn't want to drive that far. We looked up the Balsams and were surprised at the vast amount of terrain, but again, didn't want to travel that far. In the end, we went with our old standby, the Wilderness House (formerly, the Sunday River Inn).

The trails were recently groomed, and there was very little traffic. Both good things. Unfortunately, the fact that it was sunny about almost 40 degrees made the snow ski more like mashed potatoes. No glide. Hard work. And our favorite trails weren't open due to lack of snow cover. It certainly made us glad we hadn't traveled far to ski! We made the best of it, however, and managed to be out for a HARD 1.5 hour ski. By the end, my arms and shoulders needed some cheese to go with their whine ;) Hopefully this week's snow will have improved conditions in many places so we can head back up this weekend.

We read on Facebook that a number of our friends had been out for long rides in MA on Saturday, enjoying the same sun, and warmer temps than we had had. So, we packed up early Sunday and headed back south to get some outdoor saddle time in. I headed out with a small group of NEBC women for an "endurance" ride. Unfortunately, none of us really know what that means ;). And we had missed the good riding day - temps on Sunday were much cooler, the sun was absent, and I definitely got way too cold on that ride. It was, however, good to be outside, and I managed 2.5 hours of some pretty good tempo riding.

Monday finally brought - cement. Yes, it looked like snow, but I'm pretty sure that somewhere, it was mixed with concrete before finally landing on our driveway. We cleared the heavy, wet snow from the usual places, but also had to ensure that our trees were cleared - especially the ones we had transplanted earlier this year. All that heavy lifting, combined with sore arms/shoulders from the weekend's other activities, had us opting for a quick snowshoe in the Burlington Landlocked Forest instead of any skiing. It was nice to be out traipsing in the woods - especially on what would normally have been a workday!

So, despite our low expecations for the weekend's weather conditions, we ended up with a variety of activities, and were pleasantly surprised that at least some of the conditions were far better than what we could have hoped for.