Yay Snow

Look at this treat this morning: first on the fresh snow at the very popular Sallie Barber Mine Trail!

First out on the trail to lay fresh tracks in the morning's new snow!
Yay for Snow :)

It is really rare to be first out on this popular trail. But, today was one such rare treat as we were laying fresh tracks all the way up the frontside of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. If you've followed along this season, you know that the comedians, Jack & Rudy, typically roll snow angels to cool off after our initial climb to the historic mine. Not today, though, the fresh snow and cool temperatures made for some very frisky kids out on the trail today. How frisky? Well, here is how the goofballs celebrated the initial climb to the mine:

"I double dog dare you to try and tag me!" says play bowing Jack.
"I triple dog dare myself to try and tag you!" responds never back down Rudy :)
You can imagine what type of twisted wrestling match this turned into!

Once I separated the wrestling nuts, it was time to go down and back up the backside of the mine. As with the frontside, we were first on the new snow on the backside. If you thought the fresh snow was nice in the first photo above, look how nice it was at our high point as we started down the backside of the trail:

Powder plowing - wheeee!

On the return from skijoring down & back up the backside, the kids always like to floor it past the mine on our second pass of the day:

Zooming on by the historic mine.

Then it was time to return down the frontside of the mine trail. As I said, this trail (especially the frontside) is very popular. By the time we were on the return, a handful of other skiers had been out on the day's new snow. With multiple ski tracks across the trail, Jack & Rudy were able to floor it down the frontside:

Zooming along in a handful of ski tracks lightly packing the trail.

Today's video highlight? Well, zooming down the frontside of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. Despite a handful of pre-existing ski tracks, the conditions were still plenty soft and wonderful to let the kids open up the throttle and put the petal to the medal. Come along and see for yourself! Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead parking lot and the sillies found a nice snow shelf to climb for end of run treats:

"Perched and ready!" says the focused & happy kids atop their
snow shelf.

A really enjoyable "mid winter like day" in late April: 8.2 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 139 days on the trails covering 1188.1 miles with 117,900 feet of elevation climbed.