The split boulder near Hapgood Pond Road
2/17/2022 The forecast is grim for the next few days, so I am cancelling the first four days of the tour. I'll let people know about the second half (sec 5-8) once we see what really happens weather-wise.
2/22/2022 Snow coming Thursday night, after some rain tonight (Tues.) I'm cancelling Thursday, Sec 5. We'll ski Fri, Sat and Sun, check the schedule page for details.
2/25/2022 Day 6 Trip Report Finally some snow! But only 8" by the end of the storm, not as much as forecast. Due to very tricky driving we were 45 minutes late getting started. Five of us skied Section 6 northbound. After jamming cars into snow banks at the trail heads we set out breaking new tracks in freshly falling snow and sleet. We found the stream crossings and wet spots to be more challenging than usual because the water was high due to recent rain, and then new snow hid the water, so it was easy to be in the water before you knew it. That's why we carry scrapers! We had lunch at the top of the drop down to Rt 30. There was enough base and new snow for some nice turns or controlled snowplowing on the descent. We were able to ski parts of the French Hollow "road walk" courtesy of the new snow. The next section was lovely as always, with snow-covered spruces in close and vistas across the ponds and clearings. Skirting the edge of the beaver pond on a side slope under hemlocks there was no base and barely enough snow to ski on. The descent from Old Manchester Road to the end at South Road was a nice finish to the day. We didn't even have to dig out our cars despite the snow all day.
2/26/2022 Day 7 Trip Report "Attendance" was a bit better today with roads all cleared. We started with eleven skiers, all seasoned Multi-Day Tourers. Beautiful blue-sky day with temps just below freezing. The South Road lot was still not plowed out but not too deep to park in. This section has some fun signs and art work put up by the trail chiefs. The first climb made us glad that all our descents would be on north faces, since the southern slopes clearly had no base and would have been ruinous to ski down. We made sure to appreciate all the work John Sterns did overseeing the construction of multiple bridges on this section. We had lunch along Flood Brook just after crossing Rt 11. The road walk up Anderson Road was skied on the banks by some folks while others took the opportunity to do some cross training and walked. The left turn off of Anderson Road is easy to miss, keep a sharp eye out! From here it is a pretty climb. At Hapgood Road we added three more skiers to our group. At one point we met three young XC racers going very fast the other way, and a number of people with dogs on the trail. We had to watch the blazes carefully since there were ski tracks all over the place. We even got to do a bit of kick and glide on some tracks groomed for the local high school team.
2/27/2022 Day 8 Trip Report Today we had ten skiers. The weather was cold and clear but clouded up as the day progressed. A nice blue-wax day. We followed day-old tracks along Utley Brook for a while, then had to break our own trail, which was very easy in the light snow. The stream crossings were mostly managed with bridges but one un-bridged crossing led to some minor delays and icy skis. Everyone enjoyed the descent to FR 10. We had to move quickly off the road a few times along FR 10 to avoid snowmobiles. Once we left FR 10 we had untracked snow. We ate lunch by the beaver pond, the local engineers had even dropped a nice long tree for us to sit on for lunch. One skier headed back on the relatively flat FR 10 to the start from here. For the rest of us it was a long but pretty climb up toward Moses Pond. We stopped to catch our breath at the top and then headed down the mostly downhill snowmobile trail on Jenny Coolidge Road.
This was the official end of the Week Long Tour, minus five days, plus three more to come.
2/28/2022 Day 8+1 Trip Report Three skiers skied Sec 5 today. I did not go, but Mary said "Lovely ski on Pony Hill today. Some rocks but powder made up for them."
3/1/2022 Day 8+2 Trip Report Another nice blue-wax day! Today two skiers skied Sections 2 and 1, southbound. They got dropped off at Lind Lane about 8am and headed south. They found the northernmost section to be a bit slow but they picked up speed when they got on the railroad bed. I drove to Harriman Dam and skied about 2.5 miles northbound to meet them. We had lunch at the Dam (end of Sec 2) and they headed south at 1pm. I drove around to Harriman Station (south end of Sec 1) and skied north 3 miles to meet them again along the Rt 100 road walk. They reported fine skiing on Sec 1 with some stream crossings to slow them down. We skied south to the Massachusetts border, chasing a flock of turkeys and following bob cat tracks. At the border, Bill achieved his several year's goal of skiing the entire Catamount Trail, earning the status of End-To-Ender! We couldn't let this momentous "Golden Spike" occasion pass without a celebration, so we took pictures and had brownies that Marie supplied with some cider and rum. We had to partake carefully since we still had to turn around and ski 1.8 miles back to the car at Harriman Station. We finished up about 4:00, so Bill and Mary skied 18.1 miles in eight hours.
And that really ends the CTA MDT #6. It just happened that this group was all seasoned End-to-Enders (six in all) or nearly-there E2Es. It was real pleasure to ski with this group.
Thanks to all the landowners and trail maintainers and bridge builders and other behind-the-scenes helpers. Thanks to the CTA office staff for their support of the tour and the trail.
Remember that the CTA can't survive without your volunteer time and/or financial contributions! There's no such thing as a free ski trip. Thanks to Marie, Neal, Bob, Andrew and Lynn for photos.
Here is the 2022 MDT #6 (Eight Day Tour, minus five plus three) by the numbers:
6 days of skiing, 5 days cancelled due to rain and no snow, 3 days added at the end for make up, 37 actual skier-days skied, 15 skiers skiing at least one day, 71.8 miles of Catamount Trail skied, 306 skier-miles skied, 14, most skiers on any day, 5, fewest skiers on any day, 5 women skiers, 10 men skiers, 8" of new snow overall, 3 couples skiing together, 5 skiers who skied at least part of all three days, 0 skiers new to MultiDay Tours, 6 skiers who were already End-to-Enders, 1 new End-to-Ender, 3 skiers who skied every part of all three days, 13? trail chiefs who helped keep these sections of trail clear and available, 196+ emails to or from the tour coordinators, 2 hosts who opened his home for skiers, 2 boot failures, 0 ski failure, 1 bailout cars used. 0 days of rain forecast, 0 days of actual skiing in the rain, 0 injuries, 0 lost skiers, 0 skiers who went away mad, 0 skiers who missed a day due to communications mix-ups, 0 skiers left at a trail head, 0 car problems or accidents,
These things were all uncountable, as they should be: smiles, laughs, thank yous, calories burned, help offered, beautiful vistas, tracks in the snow, interesting trail conversations.
