XC Skiing - Dyken Pond (again)

We weren't going to go skiing again today, feeling somewhat the aftereffects of yesterday. But when there's good snow on the ground, temps in the 40s, blue skies, and rain on the way, you do what you have to do, and get out and savor every moment while you can. So this afternoon, we headed back to Dyken Pond (see yesterday's post) to wander some of the other trails.

Arriving in the parking lot, we recognized Roy and Sue's RAV4, now knowing that they were out there somewhere again as we were. We started out the northern end of the Long Trail loop, and very shortly ran into each other, as they were just finishing up the same loop in the opposite direction. We skied together for a little bit, and then we went our own ways. We thanked them for breaking the trail for us on the rest of the loop, and they headed back to their car.

The snow today was much wetter and heavier than yesterday, making steering on the downhills, like this one through the "Rock Garden", a little tricky.



Continuing on, and turning back toward the Center, we reached another landmark, "Grandfather Rock".



Somehow we missed the shorter westbound leg of the Otter Creek Trail, and wound up doing that entire loop as well. The sun was setting as we finally reached the car, casting an orange glow on the tops of the trees around the parking area.



I said yesterday that this 15-20" of snow would survive the weekend rain, but even after a couple of days above freezing, many rocks were already poking through on the trails. This area needs LOTS of snow cover, and preferably a good base, and may not be skiable again until we get some more snow.