Skiing Adventures

   The creek skiing continued for another weekend, and my intention of skiing all the trails in one day went out the window.  Once I got on the creek by Giles Street, I just kept deciding to go on to one more landmark.  Eventually, I was standing at the end of the ice under the Middaugh Road in Brooktondale.

   My first stop was to get footage for a film I'm making to enter in the Banff Film Festival.  I think I see a grand prize in my future.

   

  I've probably skied to Potter's Falls before, but I don't remember it.  This is one of two spots I had to leave the ice to get around. Years ago, I had a near-death experience just above these falls under similar conditions.  That's part of why I do gorge awareness talks at the high school now.

 There were a couple times where water runs over the thick ice and there's slush to ski through, but the view is still good.  Little did I realize at this point that I would make it to just below that farthest hill with the bare spot on top.

   Had to go fast under Burns Rd to avoid falling concrete.  It's more dangerous than rock falls from the gorge cliffs.

   Just upstream from the city reservoir.  What percentage of its capacity is taken up by silt?  There were a few spots along the way that looked like this.

   Usually, when you hear about a hunter having an accident, they have fallen out of their stand.  You rarely hear about the tree falling.  Hope the water was deep enough that they didn't get hurt.

   The rail trail now goes from our neighborhood almost to Middaugh Rd.  I'm claiming the fame of being the first to ski all the way from town to Middaugh.

  

Plans to ski home via the Coddington Valley Rail Trail and Rec Way were set aside when Connie and Andy decided to ski it, but then decided to only go to Banks Rd, meet me, get their skis out, and change plans.  We ended up going to Ridgeway Rd to scope out another section of the CoVRT where a work party is scheduled.  We couldn't ski much of the rail bed, but the pond that is the source of Willseyville Creek was an interesting excursion.

   Nice view of Bald Hill, which is sometimes referred to as Bald Mountain because of its steepness.  I hypothesize that it is this steep because it was blasted to obtain fill to build the Cayuga and Susquehanna Rail Road in 1858. 

  

  I heard there were drifts to be found on the hilltops, so after a delicious lunch, we went back out for a little more skiing over them.  I wouldn't say this is even 8 feet high.

  

  And we didn't even have this much bare ground in the city. 

                                                                                                                                                                              I don't have an accurate estimate of the distance, but it was roughly eight hours of skiing.  Three separate stints in one day.  That's a vacation, and it was only Saturday!

 
    Connie gave me a ride home so I wouldn't have to ski in the dark.

  

  Some more creek skiing Sunday morning.  The trails can wait.

   But then I got word from Steve and Andy that they were on the CoVRT and I should head out to meet them and ski back to our house.  Much obliged, I got them off the rail trail and took them on the Big Tree Tour.  Some specimens were more impressive than others.