What was our annual snowshoe race up against this year? I hiked the trails last week to check their condition, and frankly because I needed the respite. For a significant stretch of the way up to the top the trails were covered with glass ice dusted with just enough snow to mask where it was the slickest. I spent the first several months of this winter as a snowmaker at a ski resort, meaning I spent the day briskly walking down frequently icy slopes hardly falling at all. My balance was honed almost to mountain goat standards. But on the way up and down The Green Mountain Trails that day, I fell no less than ten times.
Some of my faltering was minor. I'm still feeling occasional aches from my most dramatic slip up. My feet slid forward until I lost all purchase, went momentarily airborne, and fell flat on my back: A perfectly executed Charlie Brown that knocked the wind out of me.
So I was all too happy to see warm temps and rain by midweek. Bare trails and frozen mud would be preferable to this, much preferable. Then nature set to work resurfacing the trails, first with a couple inches of sleety snow, then several more powdery inches a day later. An impending storm midweek will determine just how lucky we are. Could be upwards of six inches, even a foot, which would be damn lucky. Could be rain or a slushy mixture which would restore the hellacious crust that has been de rigueur this year. There are no sure things this winter (or ever, really). Then there's the matter of getting across the river as our bridge was swept away by Irene and has yet to be replaced. We'll pull it off. We always do. But, oh man....
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