A few days ago Olivia (youngest daughter) and I went skiing. My current agenda is to try going to places I have not skied before which is a change from my usual impulse to ski on Donahue Lake. Olivia was not interested in dealing with hills so the safest bet was a section of the Trans Canada Trail.
We drove to Salmon River Lake, parked (safely) on the side of the road where we could easily access the trail. As we were getting our gear out of the car three snowmobiles went past. They had come from Guysborough Intervale – a route made possible once several lakes freeze. It was nice to see others out enjoying the afternoon, and nicer still when the noise of their machines faded away.
Once we were clamped into our skis and moving on the trail another consequence of the snowmobiles quickly made itself known: slushy crud. Each of us ended up with gobs of ice on our skis. This rendered our forward progress painstakingly slow. I didn’t even realize the cause of this poor performance right away. I thought it seemed odd that we were not able to glide when conditions were so favorable. When I finally clued in I used my wax scraper to clear both pairs of skis. Olivia had clumps like small fists on both skis.
The section of trail we were on ended up not being especially flat. We encountered several inclines that were tricky to descend. I thought this added nice variety while Olivia would have preferred the trail to remain flat. The trail is closely lined by trees on each side. Unfortunately we ran out of time and had to turn just as we came to an interesting area where the trail borders a few lakes.
Beautiful!
Happy to see that others are making use of the snow for cross-country skiing! So beautiful after the heavy snowfall. I love your photos!
Amazing photos 🙂