Ski 1:48:19 [1] 11.9 mi (9:06 / mi) +494m 8:04 / mi
After Lindsay was dispatched with Ben for Maine Med, Lindsay, Lincoln and I went to Gorham to get some soup. They were headed back with Lin's rental car to Maine, but I was staying in the valley, so I decided to go ski. Headed to Rocky Branch to ski North Hall. As I got there, a guy was getting out of his car. I asked how the skiing was and he went off. "It's terrible. It's horrible. It's not groomed, it sucks. Worst skiing I've seen here in 20 years."
That didn't sound heartening. So I figured I'd have a short, frustrating ski in piles of knee-deep slush from the day's rain and drizzle. So I left behind a spare headlamp battery and a drink belt and skied out.
And, dude guy was wrong. It was a little slow, yes, and there was 3" of snow fallen during the day, sure, but it was by no means bad. The only issue was down the Keeney where someone had snowplowed a 4' wide track of ice (*) with pretty rough berms and the other option was 4" of powder over the tracks on the side but by mixing the two I was able to stay in control. Similar thing up the Kellogg, but that was just good awkward-skate training, although by that time I was pretty pooped. Then food, fire, bed.
* [rant] A quick word about how they teach people to go downhills with the be-all and end-all to snowplow at all costs. It just effs up the trail. A lot of these people are downhill skiers, but no one ever makes an effort to teach them how to ski downhill on little downhill skis without edges. Cross country doesn't have to be solely about going up hills, but we seem to think that no one learning to go down a hill should learn how to do it stepping or parallel turning, but that "ski in control" should only mean "ski slow and screw up the trail." Downhills are fun! You just have to know how to do them. [/rant]