Catching up & 1st half of season

As blogs usually go there are big chunks of time when you just don't post. Then it's compounding cycle. You don't want to put newer info up until you get around to posting previous reports, but you don't have time to do it all, so you put it off some more.

This week I have to be away from the mountains and back to real world. I also have to be away from L and Chilly-dog so I'll have some lonely nights well suited for computer time and writing. Hopefully that means getting back up to the present here.

The first place to start is with this video recap of the first part of the season. I've shared this in a lot of venues but not here. So here goes. This encompasses up till the end of January 2011. Settings include Cannon, Bretton Woods, and BC areas around Lincoln. The cast includes:
Matt D: Black Coated Skier (and POV of fat Sir Francis Bacons)
John E: Orange Coated Skier
Leighann M: Stylie Rider
Chilly-D: Black fur
Alex M: Camera Man, occasional Blue Coated Skier, POV Rider, etc

Music is by Dirtybird Beats. This is a guy making amazing music out of his home in Humbolt County. He gave me permission to use this great track "and it falls" for the soundtrack. Check him out at http://dirtybirdbeats.blogspot.com/

And here you go. More to come soon...

Switch

Finally a rainy day to catch up things here at the desk.

This was shot a few weeks ago during a good morning tide. We are switching nursery stage oysters from 3/16 bags to 3/8 bags. This makes the grow fast and in a few weeks they'll be in great shape to go 'free range'

The Sounds of Summer

Sometimes you get more than you expect.

Last night JC and I launched his boat in the Jones River...its summer home. At the start of this operation my expectations were low. I wasn't even sure we could fit his boat on my trailer. I thought our best case outcome was doing some trailer modifications over a few beers in his driveway.

Instead, we easily lifted the boat off its blocks and onto the trailer where it fit perfectly. Twenty minutes later we slipped it into the Jones. And five minutes after that we were heading out to the bay. The lower river and the bay were glassy calm and beautiful but no fish were in sight. After a few casts near Cripple Rocks we headed back into the river. On a hunch I suggested we drift past the mouth of Smelt Brook. As soon as we cut the motor the schoolies erupted all around us. We each landed fish before it was time to move on with the setting sun.

What a night. What a start.

Sorry water

So back to the story of April 30th. When we left this story we had just hiked up Cannon in a freak late April 2’ snowfall and skied down through the most water logged snow I’ve ever seen.

This little blog is about water and sure enough our story that day was also water’s story. We headed out of Franconia Notch and so did the water. The mighty Pemigewasset River starts its 65 mile journey right here at Profile Lake at the base of Cannon - filled by all that melting snow. We left the Notch and found a spot in our favorite brewery - the Woodstock Inn. We quickly replaced lost calories and fluids from the hike. Then we headed across the street to a perfect little park along the Pemi. What a spot! The water was fairly high and cold from all that spring snow melt. People and dogs were enjoying the sundrenched rocks in the middle of river. I forgot to bring the camera, but let me tell you the scenery was DDDelightful.

It was hard to tear away from the sunny rocks but we knew we had miles to go. But we weren’t in the car long when we realized that days like this are rare and need to be maximized. So we pulled off the highway a few exits down to explore a spot J had been researching. Stopping at a roadside store we looked across the street and saw that our story had rejoined water’s again. This time it wasn't snow on the mountain or snowmelt in the river, this was clear, cold spring water bubbling up from the deep aquifer. Filing our bottles we were ready to move on.


J had been wanting to check out Franklin Falls Dam. This is one of those crazy Army Corps projects that I’ll never be able to wrap my head around. Here are the stats…


And here we meet the Pemi again. At this point the Pemi should have gained strength from the addition of hundreds of tributaries that have joined its progress since we left it as the small mountain stream in Woodstock. Instead, it is broad and slow thanks to the Franklin Falls Dam. This is a massive flood control dam (I talk more about them here ). Built in 1943 I have to assume that this was part of a jobs creation program because this thing is so strangely massive and so completely out of place it’s hard to understand why else it would be built.


We walked around for a while exploring both sides of the ‘keep out’ signs. I’m sure the Jamaican beer and the spring greenery contributed to the experience but this seemed to be truly a lunar landscape. While NASA brings people to the moon, the Corps brings the moon to the people…right smack dab in the middle of a scenic New England town and a noble river.


And then we were on our way. The water was on its way too. While we had an easy trip home the Pemi still had another dam to block its path before reaching the Merrimack series of dams of its own. Sorry water.

Good bye April

You don't skip a chance to catch 2' of snow at the tail end of April. So JE, MD, CT, and I hit the road. There was a lot of talk about where to go. Temperatures, wind, avalanches, crowds, and more all got factored into the equation. The result (as it so often is) was to head to Cannon. As a group we have about 80 years, hundreds of days, thousands of hours, and maybe millions of vertical feet of experience on this hill. But none of us have ever skinned/skied it. So the familiar became novel.

Front row parking is the first benefit of off-season skiing.


The skinning was smooth and easy. Although not so true for C on the slowshoes.


At the bottom of the Cannonball we spent some time deciding on our approach to the summit. We ended up choosing Profile which was a steep windy slog. But it was the most direct approach and the wind at our backs both helped our ascent and kept the body temp out of the red zone.





A nice little backcountry hut. I had big dreams of sitting out the deck enjoying the views and coldie. But the wind was easily 60-70MPH. The one sunny sheltered spot I found was getting barraged by 'knock-you-out' sized ice chunks. So we enjoyed a somewhat surreal indoor lunch break. It was also nice to lighten our loads....thanks Cannon.


Heading back into the sun, wind, and snow we debated options. From the tram building we could see that Tramway and probably Vista were totally scoured. On the way up we had seen that Hardscrabble was virtually untouched and looked better than ever. So we headed down Taft. The coverage was good, the snow was sticky but not bad. And then it all went down hill....or I should say we wished it would go down hill. The snow was so deep, wet, and sticky. Even the steepest pitches required straight-lining and turns were mostly out of the equation and ugly at best when attempted.

We decided the flat run-outs on that side were unwise so we slog-traversed are way over towards Zoomer. C was in and out his bindings all day. Even though is seemed that conditions would be board favorable, ultimately he had it extra hard.

We are actually pretty good skiers. And when I get a chance I'll post some video that proves it. In the meantime I hope you enjoy how hilarious water logged snow can be. My apologies to J for the evil laughter. (best viewed at 720).


There's plenty more to come, including the rest of the day's adventures.

Slushboarding paradise

Spring skiing has turned into summer skiing. It is HOT at Sugarbush. At least 75 on Friday and should hit 80 Saturday. The limitations of the Claybrook internet connection are only exceeded by my interest in computer time while here. But anyway I thought I'd throw up a quick look at the soft bumps, blazing sun, (and dirt) found on Paradise.

Obviously I need to revise the camera mounting location so viewers don't hurl (this was my on my ankle). But this was the first attempt and not too bad.




Bluebird (and clear skies)


Lunch by the river (of melting slopes)


Location, location, location