Intrepid adventurers
Just to let you know, we’re still waiting for our markers out there to be covered with snow. We got some last weekend and we rolled it (very slowly) and tracked it (even slower) just ‘cause we couldn’t stand it any longer. There’s a 4” base and perhaps and inch or so under the set tracks. There are also rocks, leaves and water. The sub-zero temperatures we’ve had all week have frozen the wet stuff we rolled and tracked and kept the base where it was.
There’s some more fine grained snow coming off the lake the past 24 hours and it will help. We’ll see just how much Gitchi Gumi wants to give us.
But the real story is the action on the east end of the Montreal Trails this week. A group of families asked for a Ranger to guide a snowshoe outing in the middle of the week. The Trail Chief had the time, so he got out there and was greeted by a good 15 young adventurers, ready to go.
Snowshoe outings have a special place in outdoor adventures. There are experienced ‘shoers and there are those in the group who have never dealt with the accursed bindings. The wonderful Moms who made this happen dealt with all the fitting and tightening with infinite patience. Meanwhile, the Trail Chief had the older adventures beat down snow and weeds in preparation for future events on the trail.
Eventually we got ‘shoeing. We stopped after about 50 meters so the Chief could tell the group to stay off the set ski tracks. He turned around and not a one of the hikers was on the tracks. Those Moms had schooled them before hand!
We ‘shoed. We looked at tracks, and tree cavities. We went off trail single file to pack our own trail and learned that toboggans were sized to follow a snowshoe trail. We went into the 100 year old stone Core Shack and talked about all the mining that went on under our feet. We climbed up to the “whistle” and were awarded some sun and a good solid 15 mile clear view of the Penokee and Gogebic Ranges with the Copper Peak ski flying scaffold reflecting off in the distance.
Well, we’d climbed some hills, so of course nearly everyone had to sled down when they could.
By the way, it was 0º and there was a pretty good west wind working around us.
The Chief doesn’t really care if there are better days to come this season. Watching that group with their smiles and hollers has been plenty for one year.
The rest of us can do it too. There’s tracks. There’s packed snow on the sides. Uller even has had its west loops rolled. The stretch from Hoyt Rd to the Big Esker has been foot packed.
Get out. Please ski the tracks. Pack the snow on the sides. We really don’t want to run the heavy equipment on the trails until our markers are buried. Ski and snowshoe travel is best right now.
We’ll see you out there. Ski with care; but Ski Freely. Z
