Craig's Report - October 27, 2004Looks PromisingIt has been a while now since we have had any snow and down in the valley it is once again predictably green, albeit dead or dormant green. However on the upper half of the mountain the snow remains and even though these are still early days, it has a feel of permanence and promise to it. Yeah, yeah, the vagaries of November weather could put a lie to that, but after a couple of so, so snow years, I am determined to have faith that the Griz will be in pay back mode this season. (Skiers without unreasonable faith in the weather are called bowlers.) It was a glorious day for slogging and gasping up a mountain through calf deep snow. I had punished myself a couple of days ago fighting my way up Falling Star, so it seemed appropriate to continue the abuse at the other end of the mountain with a trip up Cedar Bowl. Any trip I make up Cedar seems to require my getting befuddled as to what the route up is, but even with some back tracking and much tongue dragging, it was a wonderful place to be on a day like today. Farther up, most of the snow is still quite sugary, but sits on a thin layer of breaking crust which adds to your walking pleasure. The trip down through Lizard on Tower Six road was on snow well packed by by numerous truck and ATV passages. For some reason it was only then that it occurred to me that walking up the packed road and down through Cedar might have been a tad brighter. I am always impressed at where folks will take a 4x4 truck and that was particularly true a couple of days ago when I discovered truck tracks up Timber to the radio tower above the top of the Timber Chair. Here the road up was definitely not packed and the the tire tracks told the tale of some interesting struggles and I suspect some pretty decent driving. At 8:15 PM, it is -3 C at the house and starry.
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