Maine Outdoor Journal

I thought I might have seriously miscalculated this weekend...

Saturday I stayed close to home and got a bunch of stuff done. Shoveled loads of compost. Cleared away some brush. Banged out a few thousand words on the laptop. Lent moral support to my lovely gardener.

All this with an eye on the weather. Beautiful blue skies and increasingly warm temps. Ouch. Should have gone skiing today, I kept thinking. Would have been beyond awesome. It was hard, oh so hard to stay home. C'est la vie.

Sunday I was determined... no chores today. I jumped into a Buffett T, shorts and sandals, packed the vehicle with the ski goods, and was off to Sugarloaf. Please, please I said, gimme good weather. Just one more day, I begged.

The drive up didn't look good. Gray clouds. Even a sprinkle. Damn. Up the access road and into the lot. Half the mountain shrouded in dark clouds. Double damn.

Took a couple runs off the Super Quad, skittering down across mostly frozen crud. Uh oh. This ain't gonna go my way, me thinks.

Into The Bag for a early lunch to mull over my poor choice of weather days (moral: always ski when the weather is good, the chores can wait...). A bowl of chili and a Bally (I solved the bottle cap puzzle: "1/2 + ing A BANG ↑ dime"... indeed!) put a much better spin on the day. I finish up and turn around to look out the window.

Sun!!!

And so it went. A full afternoon of face-burning sun and ever-softening snow. Yee-hah! Let the spring mountain tour begin!

Gauge. King's. Gondy. Bubblecuffer. Nitro. Tote. Once, twice... oooooh so good!

Yeah, there was funky maneuvering to do here and there, as the trails melted out and grass and dirt and rocks and streamlets appeared suddenly on each run. But what fun. Sweet! Spring at Sugarloaf!!

And there's plenty of snow left for more. You've gotta week to get there and get your final lift-served turns in. The Loaf closes this coming Sunday May 3rd. You gonna be there?