Senior Hiking #390 - Nordic Trails

33° - 35°

Feb 7, 2011…Nordic Trails…
hike # 390
by Betsy
It was not very cold today so I wasn’t too concerned about wearing all the warmest stuff. However, the Schweitzer website said that wind was high so I had my face mask accessible. I have a runny/stuffy cold this week and wasn’t totally with the program but I’m tough and proceeded anyway. And I thought it might do me good to get out in the fresh air. But I did leave my germs all over the mountain! My nose just wouldn’t stop running.

While initially we planned on going up behind the firehouse, we figured the Nordics would be easier on my compromised health issues. Also if the high wind materialized, the Nordics would also be preferable. So we headed up all the way and parked at the village. Met a former neighbor from our old Baldy Mountain Rd neighborhood in the parking lot and spent some time chatting. Walking into and thru the village the wind was wild, and the strong gusts almost flattened me! We spent some time watching the little kids for a while...I swear one of them was the shortest one we have ever seen.

In trying to decide which trails to do today, Jim thought we could make it easier on me by doing some that we hadn’t done in a few years. HA! It turned out to be much harder, very long and all up! So much for that bit of “thoughtfulness.” From the village we took groomed Overland and hiked it to the end where we picked up Cougar Gulch. Surprise…Cougar Gulch was not groomed. From there we headed to Boomerang…and again, it also was not groomed but it never really is. By now we were plowing thru a foot of new fresh snow and I was glad I wasn’t breaking trail. I thought the end would never come but alas, after much maneuvering thru deep snow and walking around sink holes, the end was in sight. Jim’s snowshoes came off a couple of times, slipping off the heels of his new over boots.

From here we found the nicely groomed Cloudwalker and the choice of which way to turn came easy…continuing on down to Wolf Ridge, which would mean another two or more hours round trip, or head back to the village which would be about an hour…we chose the latter. Four hours out today was enough for my achy body.

There was intermittent snow all day and I was glad I had all my layers on …it was neither too cold nor too warm but my face and butt got cold several times. We saw just a couple of people out today …and we did not meet the “snowshoe patrol lady.”

Left home 10:10
Started up 11:00
Got to truck 3:00
Total miles hiked 8 miles
Total hiking time 4 hours