Archive for January, 2011

Its been a good 11 years..

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

On a recent trip to the White Mountains NRA I spent some time in the Wickersham Creek trail shelter. It is about half way to Borealis-LeFevre Cabin from the mile 28 trailhead, and a good place to meet up at if your party is traveling at different speeds.

The shelter is a small 8 foot by 10 foot or so log cabin with a single window. Its small enough it warms up fairly quickly and can be quite cozy when its cold out.

All the cabins and shelters in the Whites have log books, where visitors record the details of their stay. These entries can make for fun reading at times and also can be quite useful, relaying trail conditions or other news. While waiting in the shelter for the rest of my party to catch up, as the trails were quite firm and much faster biking than skiing, I started looking back at the old entries. After a handful of pages I stumped upon this entry:

A little over eleven years ago Nancy and I had done a ski trip on the Summit Trail and on the way back we stopped at the shelter to spend the night. It was somewhere around our forth “date” – most of our “dates” were ski trips or hikes of various forms. The entry brought back memories, and got me reflecting on all the changes in my life since then – getting married, having the twins.. and thinking about how lucky I am. Life is good!

A Snow Bike Tour to Borealis-LeFevre Cabin

Monday, January 17th, 2011

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With Nancy and the Twins off on the east coast visting Nancy’s half of the family, I found myself with a weekend free. I had planned on a two night trip, but bailed on the first night due to the weather. On the second night Ms Marsh and I headed out to Borealis-LeFevre for a quick overnighter.

The trip was largely uneventful, though a bit cold. It is roughly 20 miles one way and the trail was in great shaping with very fast biking conditions. Alas, Ms Marsh on skis had a harder time, as the snow was cold and slow. Borealis-LeFevre cabin was its normal welcoming self, and once we got the fire going warmed up nicely.

Marsh and I spent the evening talking and generally lazing about in the warm of the cabin. The next day we headed out back to the trail head. The thermometer on the bike had a very pessimistic view on the weather.. though I think it might have been off by a bit.

The light this time of the year is fantastic, with lots of low angle sun lighting the hills up in a beautiful warm golden glow.

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow!

More photos, for the picture inclined:

A Bike Trip to Borealis-LeFevre Cabin