I had a Monday off and had plans to do a 40 mile out and back, but these plans fell though, leaving me with the day off and no firm plans… I was uninspired to try anything new and ended up doing one of my “standard” long day skis, a loop from the mile 28 trailhead of the White Mountains NRA, heading out to Moose Creek Cabin, across on the Moose Creek connector trail to the Wickersham Trail Shelter, then back out to to the mile 28 Trailhead. The trails where in fairly good shape, except for some dirt that is starting to show though on the hills.
The day started out quite fast, and I made it to Moose Creek cabin in three hours and ten minutes, which is quite fast for me, but it started snowing short after I started down the Moose Creek trail, slowing this down a fair bit.
I ended up doing this 35 mile loop in around 8 hours, 7 hours of which I was actually traveling, at least according to my GPS. The GPS has turned out to be a wonderful tool for reducing the number and length of stops – keeping its “Time Stopped” counter low is very motivational.
Posts Tagged ‘moose creek trail’
The Uninspired Ski
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010More fun in the Whites
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Marsh, Tom, and I enjoyed a long day ski on Saturday in the whites. Marsh skied out to a little past the Trail Shelter, while Tom and I skied to Moose Creek cabin, skied a cross via Moose Creek Trail to the Trail Shelter, then back out to mile 28. We intended to catch up with Marsh and ski back out to the parking lot, but alas we were slower than anticipated, as the Moose Creek trail, although super scenic and very beautiful, was a slow tussock fest. With a bit more snow Moose Creek trail would be a lot more fun. It was a fairly enjoyable eight and a half hours of skiing, though not without some excitement. I had partially ripped one of the bindings off of one of my skis last Monday and had not noticed it until we were around 18 miles in. After it bit of tightening I made it out, but thinking about one of my skis falling off made the hills a bit more exciting.
The low angle morning sun, just over the Alaskan Range.
The midday sun, peeking though a stand of burned black spruce.
The setting sun, as seen from Moose Creek trail.
Remus and Tom, enjoying the a tussock free section of Moose Creek trail.
A less tussock free section.
The only litter find – a binky! 