Friday afternoon ski

Self portrait

We finally got another good snowstorm, five or six inches of wet snow.  I headed out Friday afternoon to Yankee Springs to check out the skiing.  I’m sure it won’t be great, as the temperature has risen above the freezing mark, but it’s still snowing lightly.  At the trailhead, I apply wax for the warmer conditions and head off.  Someone had been here before, including I a dog sled that has torn up part of the tracks.  I stop at Hall Lake, where the water is mostly open with only ice around the edges.  Normally, when I’m here in winter, they’d be a few fishermen sitting out, watching intently their lines dropped into a hole through the ice.  Taking off my skis, I explore around the edge of the lake and see ripples in the water, which looks like fish are active and feeding off the top only there are no insects.  Then I see it’s clumps of snow dropping from overhanging limbs.  I ski through an area where the pines are thick and the snow is light, most of it having been captured on the overhead limbs.  Thankfully there are few rocks as I often find myself occasionally bottoming out on the soft and still warm ground.   Leaving the lake, I begin to climb up Graves Hill.  The snow conditions changes and I begin to have problems with it sticking to the bottom of my skis.  Occasionally, the buildup is so bad that it feels as if I’m wearing platform skis.  Then, I have to pick up my skis as if I am walking.  At the top of the hill, I swing over to Devil’s Soup Bowl, a kettle bowl left behind when the last of the glaciers retreated northward.  There’s no hot soup on today, only cold soup ; fitting for Dante’s Lucifer who’s encased in ice at the bottom realm of hell.   I explore around the bowls (there are several in this area), before circling back around on a dirt road that runs through the forest.  It’s not a long ski, but it was nice to get out in the weather, sticky snow and all.

Looking into Devil Soup Bowl

Hall Lake with ice close to shore