saturday i rode with the yukon outbackers up on kelsay. man talk about a group of riders, have seen club rides with a lot less people! hero said he lost count at about 21 or 22, seemed to me like there must have been 30 at least. snow was spring time mush, coverage is getting better. went over to roberts mt. rocks and stumps still sticking out. one of the skidoo riders did go down and up but i didn't think it was worth bending something for
one of the rmks bent a trailing arm coming out of there. thought it best to save that one for another day. played from place to place, ran into more large groups of peeps than i've ever seen out there. made the loop. i heard there was maybe a little accident involving a skidoo getting a little to close to the back of a cat
but i won't tell!
sunday, sunday, sunday, had some of the medford gang come up and met himark and his boy up on the hill. decided it was time to leave the road and see how the coverage was up on the ridge. about 2 miles from the end of the road the snow just instantly changed, no more spring time mush but more of a pow that had set for a day or two. coverage got waaaaayyyy better also. after riding up on kelsay and seeing the coverage there was wondering if this ride was even gonna be possible. was having such a blast cutting the banks missed the turn and didn't even notice i was at the end of the road!!! headed out into the trees, it felt soooooooo good, nice to be back home. coverage was good enough that you didn't have to worry very much about things under the snow but picking a line through there is tough enough with 12 feet of snow let alone 6 or so. no problems until we got to the last 1/4 of the climb, this is where it is always difficult find a way to the top, let stuckfest begin
the trees just get so tight and there is only a couple of ways through, trying to turn and circle to find a line just gets tough. did pull off a move that was one of those perfect all out dip in your shoulder and hold the ski and sidehill it out or die moves, sweet.
after what seemed like an enternity finally saw the last couple of hundered yards to the top. this and the ride to the top of the second ridge is the best climbing of the day, smaller trees start to disappear and it opens up enough you can pick a line far enough ahead you can start moving. did i mention the grade gets to just the perfect pitch to give you that tingly feeling as your ripping your way to the top. felt so good carving up through the trees and around the bluffs, like floating on a cloud. what a feeling of accomplishment when i hit the crest of the ridge, we were a couple of hundred yards off to the left but the cruize to the bottom of the second ridge was a piece of cake. the pull to the top of the second ridge is just like the top of the first, heaven, just twice as long
seems funny always top the same spot on the second ridge, not a trail or a marker in sight but always within about a 20 yard section, it must be pulling me there!
was a clear day so the view from the top was awesome. could see forever, also could see tons of trees that had never seen up there before, a sign of the low snow conditions. decided to head over to the bowl, there is a meadow on the top of the ridge that is about 50 yards wide and 3-400 yards long that is just perfect to s turn all the way through, something like you'd see in a movie. got to the bowl and trees sticking out everywhere, also some huge breaks in the snow over on the peak, an avalanche just waiting to happen. 3 of us did head down and turned around in the first trees, ted pulled off one sweet turn out as he went to climb out. one of those where your sure he's gonna be stuck but skis go up in the air and he does a 180 on a dime and back down the hill. very nice! sat on the top and discussed how i'm trying to sucker someone to go all the way to the bottom of the bowl so we can see if it can be done. is a whole huge face we've never touched, but the trees to the bottom get thick and is steep enough once you've slid off the last bench theres gonna be no stopping till ya' hit the bottem. then it was time to decide where to go from there, the safe bet was back the way we came and go climb the ridge in a couple of different places. then there was the more adventuresome way over the other side of the ridge. this is where the carnage usually takes place, everyone left the decision up to me. i knew the best idea was to go back the way we came, going over the other side of the ridge is tough enough with good coverage, probably not the best idea with the coverage we had. remember thinking if we bail over the other side by the time were done someone is not gonna want to be my friend. figured i've got enough friends so off we went
top 1/4 was nice, good coverage and easy to pick your line, after that it started getting tighter and this is of course where it gets steeper. got stopped at the top of a drain that had about 5 bad spots one after another and several near vertical spots. this is one of the major disadvantages of leading, you get into spots where its either go forward or spend a lot of time and energy to get your sled turned to go another way. so i'm commited and go to get through the first of the obsticles, had to turn back right to miss a tree in front of me and had another to my right and about a 10 foot drop right after them. my left ski ends up going down in the tree well and kicking me off to that side, somehow managed to get my right foot pinned between the left rail and the tree. so i'm hanging over the drop with my leg about 30 degrees above my head, sled crushing my foot more and more as i trying to hang on and not pull the sled any harder into the tree. luckily ted was just a little way above me and heard my girlish cries for help and came down and rolled the sled to release me from my prison. thought about what would have happened if he wasn't there, don't know if i would have been able to get out of that alone. the pitch of the hill was so steep was all i could do to try and keep the sled from crushing me, don't think there would have been any chance i could have actually pushed it hard enough to get my foot out. did have my saw in the handle of my shovel in my backpack, self amputation on the mountain would be an ugly choice! so after that only had 4 more screwed up spots to get out of the drain
made it out and back on our way down, some great boondocking to be had, catwalking trees, jumping creeks, trying to pick lines up bluffs that just don't want you to succeed. know i went through several spots thinking someone nots gonna make it through that one. finally crested the last small ridge before our next destination all in one piece and met up at the lake. was almost dark and was hoping to be able to go over the top ridge and back down the other side. but as soon as we hit the lake could see the top of the ridge was still almost all rock and the way up just did not have enough coverage. so the other choice was to boondock down to the bottom lake in the dark, in the tightest trees of the day, in the worst coverage of the day. who would expect less??? if it was easy would it be worth going
the going just got tougher and tougher, seem to remember some people not being too impressed with the qaulity of the trail we were providing and the amount of scratches thier new sleds were aquiring
seemed silly, what else did they expect riding with me??? thought back to the moment on the ridge when i knew if we bailed off someone would not be too happy with me by the end of the day, i must be psychic!
is only about 2 1/2 miles from lake to lake but it seemed like 10. the last mile was brutal, took all i had to keep turning through the trees. somewhere in there one of the skidoo riders center punched a tree and lost a bumper. finally got to the lake and took a break and waited for everyone to catch up. besides some scratches, a couple of tweaked things here and there and the doo bumper, everyone got there and seemed to be in one piece. tired and a little worse for wear we heaed out for the road ride back to the trucks. don't think anyone complained about having 20 miles of road to cover, know when i mentioned we could do a little more boondocking on the way back some were questioning my sanity, but shouldn't they have done that before we left??????
