Monday, March 28, 2005

Brown Klister Here in southern Wisconsin, we had good snow on the ski trails for much of the winter. A lot of good it did me, since I was tied up most weekends at sports shows. I did get out on the Saturday of Super Bowl Weekend, just after DNR Kettle Moraine Northern Unit Supervisor Jerry Leiterman had finished grooming the Zillmer trails. Jerry and I struck up a conversation that led to me tape a segment with him a few days later at a tree thinning operation at the Long Lake Campground. While skiing that day, I found fresh dog and boot tracks on the trail, despite the sign posted at the trailhead that clearly says the trails are off limits to hikers and pets while they are snow covered. Near the end of the red loop, I encountered the culprits - a young lady and her golden retriever.  There are certainly benefits to multiple use, but there are drawbacks when one user group doesn't respect the rules and makes it difficult for another user group. Jerry said he had talked to the dogwalker, who told him she was unaware of the rules. Must have had her eyes closed when she walked past the sign. Anyway, her dog didn't leave anything on the trail that could mess up a ski, but boot tracks can make a ski trail pretty uneven, especially when it freezes again following a thaw. That's why I do as much off-trail skiing as I can. Yesterday and again this morning, I had a great outing not far from home. My friend Greg David calls it "crust-country skiing." Up north, in most years you get a good month of crust in April, which opens an entirely new landscape to the skier. Spring skiing on crust can take you on rivers and lakes and across marshes, fields and any other place open enough to ski without snaring a tip under a snowbound twig or cattail. This time of year, I ski mainly cornfields. Here in southern Wisconsin, you have to find a field that slopes to the north and has a woods or hill on the south side, which acts like a snowfence and catches each snowfall. Then when spring comes, the same barrier shades out the sun for much of the day, which keeps that precious snowdrift a few days or even weeks longer than the surrouding area.  The north-facing slope gives the field a little relief from the angle of the sun, stretching the season out a bit longer. In some years, I can ski well into April, although my "trail" might be reduced to a five-yard-wide drift before it's all over.  Today, half the field was still covered with a good crust.  If it freezes again tonight, or even comes close, I'll go again first thing in the morning. The field is bare on the north side, and halfway across the clay lumps turned up by last fall's plowing are beginning to poke through. Dodging clods is all part of spring skiing. Hit one at a good speed and you'll stop as fast as if you hit a fence. On Easter Sunday, I got a late start, but still managed an hour of skiing before the crust started to buckle around 9:30. This morning, I got out earlier and the conditions were even better. This is the closest thing to the "corn-snow" skiing you can enjoy in the backcountry of the Rockies, minus the mountains, of course. Today, I tracked a turkey gobbler along a hedgerow, into my woods and across the field to where he likely roosted in some pines. He's been hanging around for the last month or so with another tom. I flushed them off their night roost once and have seen their tracks several times. My turkey permit is good for this area, so I might have to give them a try when my season rolls around. When you ski this time of year, you begin to appreciate why certain tribes of the Far North have words for different forms of snow. There's hard crust, soft crust, crust with a glaze of ice, crust with a skiff of snow (the best for skate-skiing), and so on. In the open or under hardwoods, where heat can radiate upward, the crust freezes readily each night. Under pines, which retain more heat, the crust might not freeze. Ski down a slope and under some pines, as I did yesterday, and your skis will dig in and dump you. I'll enjoy the warm days to come as much as anyone, but I won't complain if I get a few more mornings of skiing before I have to hang them up for another year. Later... 6:51:37 PM    comment []