XC Skiing - Rockwood State Forest

Today, I was scheduled to lead a cross-country ski outing to Rockwood SF for Schenectady ADK. Our snow situation here in Schenectady is pretty sad right now, the 2" of wet sloppy stuff we got last week melting almost before the next day was over. But by all reports, Rockwood, at 1200 feet and closer to the lake-effect belts, got 5-7" of new snow over the past few days. So we decided to give it a try. Five of us drove for an hour, pulled into the unplowed parking lot, and stepped out into 6" of fresh powder. Good decision!



I seem to be saying this a lot lately, but this was certainly some of the best skiing of the year. For experience/confidence reasons, we split into 2 groups and went via different routes, meeting up at a designated time. As it turned out, we all wound up doing almost the same route, but with different beginnings and endings, depending on the hills desired. All told, we skied for about two-and-a-half hours, and were amazed at the difference between Rockwood and home.

Here's the group, in the waning sunlight:



Standing are Holly, Barbara, and Mary. Randolph and I reached the meeting point early, so he decided it was time for his afternoon nap.