XC Skiing - Sanders Preserve

Beautiful sunny afternoon today, near 40F, after another inch or two of new snow overnight. Holly and I headed to the Sanders Preserve, in nearby Glenville, for some more skiing before tomorrow's washout and warmup. We started out skiing in a packed snowshoe track, which wasn't bad considering the snow depth off the trail was close to 2 feet.



Further from the parking area, we found ourselves following ski tracks, discovering a couple of pretty steep hills we hadn't known were there. After climbing the first and skiing to the top of the second along the ridge, we decided against it and retraced our steps, carefully making our way down the one we'd climbed. From there, we followed a marked but unmapped and unbroken trail along the base of the ridge to where we would have come out earlier at the bottom of the other downhill. On the way back to the car, we had to descend a short steep switchback to a bridge over a stream, adding more interest and challenge.

Reaching the main trail we'd come in on, we noticed it was starting to ice up a bit as the late afternoon temperatures began to fall. The gentle downhill back to the car was more exciting than usual, but a nice ride. All in all, a good day of skiing, possibly the last for a while.