I have such a difficult time posting on this blog. I like to write, but I just don’t sit down and do it. I have been thinking that keeping a diary on the weather and doings hereabouts wouldn’t be such a bad idea either. Hmm… why not combine the two. So, here goes my first Trail Report; it’s a way for me to fill in the time gaps between big inspirational posts.
Background: I fell pretty hard at the transfer station (a little dump) over a month ago. Since my butt felt pretty dislocated after that I decided to hold off on the skiing for a while and started snowshoeing a bit more around the neighborhood. So far I have broken through one mile to the main road, put in a quarter-mile nature walk on the neighbor’s property and plowed my way a mile down and then up the newly cleared power line toward the civilization boundary known as Old Murphy Dome Rd. Don’t worry, I’ve checked out all the easements, property lines and gotten permission from landowners. I have also stomped a trail in on along the survey line just above our property. Today was the day I connected the survey trail above to the power line below.
Break On Through: February 22, 2020- Partly sunny-flurries- high of 10 degrees.
Rolling along down your own clean, solid, pristine snowshoe trail is pretty darn satisfying. So far the moose and there deep post-holes have kept away from my route. The best way to keep a trail in such good shape is to keep stomping it in both directions each day, otherwise your steps can harden in a side to side pattern. I’ve gotten pretty sick of this out and back stuff, however, so it’s time to tackle a long, downhill stretch of north-facing spruce forest.
The old survey trail is obvious and tempting, but a nursery of Dr. Seuss trees blankets the whole way as far as I can see. The plan, as usual, is minimal weaving and minimal sawing and snapping. My task starts where a moose has recently come through and so I am a little spooked. The fact that Rhonda’s squirrel-eating face is the same as her moose-sniffing face doesn’t help. I unsnap my bow saw and take a step toward the first wall of humps and heaps immediately falling mid-thigh despite my 3 ft long Maine Guide snowshoes. Me and my Sanvik make short work on the four or so trees crisscrossing my path and I move on down the hill a bit. Next is a web of willows, much easier to deal with as they don’t hide caverns and long-scraggly boughs like the spruce.
A little more of this and a little more of that and I finally reach the survey line that represents the ROW to some future fantasy subdivisions. On google maps there are 15 roads and a couple hundred lots on that opposite hillside but all I can see are a handful of clearings and a few roof peaks. The power line that I am heading for below brings electricity to those homes and continues on to Murphy Dome Research Station. After a few more breakthroughs I can see a bit of those power lines straight ahead. Myself and Jim Morrison know just what is going to happen here but Rhonda seems oblivious and quite ready to be done with this drudgery.
She misses the big reveal, having preoccupied herself with a tree top nearby but finally I step onto the terra firma of my old power line trail. I look up and down the line and, although we both want to head home the easy way, I turn and head back up hill to check my work while I have the saw and because of the two-directions thing I mentioned earlier. Rhonda doesn’t seem upset at all, she lives in the moment. In this moment, I am pretty satisfied.