Tales from the Hinterland - winter of 2011/2012 edition

Telemark Dave wrote

Are you back from yoga yet?

I, for one, cannot wait to find out what happened!

Yes, and well rested. Ran into some technical difficulties which almost resulted in hurling the laptop out the window. It's all sorted out now, with a little tech support from 1-800-Call-Harv. Report coming imminently.

This tale has been moved!


Since it became a bit of a blog and was full of pictures, I decided to post the special edition version of our epic day yesterday as a trip report. Click here for the full story.

Hi there, SBR here, and I've popped in to post a few random pics of people skiing on old-school tele gear in mellow terrain that could just as easily be out your back door. Well, it is quite literally out my back door, so there you go. And oh, yeah, up until this moment, we had way more snow than you and I can prove it with pictures. Quickly click away if this offends you!


It's a bit anti-climactic after today's snow dump in NY but yesterday, the Hinterlands got a nice little refresher of soggy glop from the sky. Telemark Dave and I, of course, deemed this a powder event and went skiing. Given the nature of the new snow, layered on top of a breakable-crusty base, we kept it low-angle and did a little meadow skipping in the woods near SBRHQ.

We live at the end of the plowed road. This is the rest of the road:


The conditions were perfect for old-school tele touring:


Shortly after the turn above, TD's phone rang, providing one of the highlights of the tour. It was Younger Son's math teacher, calling to report a behavioral incident in class. Trouble was, it was primarily due to the fact that that Younger Son (and Older Son) were scheduled to leave school early and go to XC ski team practice in anticipation of the provincial championships in our fair burg today and tomorrow. I mean, they are bringing snow into the downtown streets for the skate sprints tomorrow. This is a big deal. He was, needless to say, STOKED, plus he had a Get Out of Jail Free Card for the day. Combine this with the general attitude of a competitive 14 year-old, and well, yes, you might expect some odd behavior. In the big scheme of things, it as relatively minor but Math Teacher, who is a hockey nut, not a skier, felt he had to make his case. TD did his best to maintain his Serious Parent Face but when math teacher asked him if he had a moment to chat, TD replied, "well sure, I'm just out skiing in the woods." Listening in, I almost lost it at that point, and I think the teacher knew he was facing an uphill battle. Anyway, TD agreed that he and Ms. TD (a teacher herself) would have a chat and blah, blah, blah.

We continued on to the beaver pond and squeeked out another couple of turns. TD was obviously concentrating on the upcoming Serious Chat With His Son:


Then we skied over to Telemark Hill and cruised around Utah's Rock:


The same rock, with Utah but without snow:


Next time, don't forget to put on the Swix Easy-Glide!

cool

Thanks for the warning about the photos. I tried to look away but myself strangely drawn to the post. Oh well.

Thanks for some great pictures and words. It brightened my dreary, rain soaked view out my window.

Thanks guys, just doing my best to keep things light. Camp, I posted the dog pic just for you.

FWIW, if you see this on Friday, Feb 24, during the day, check out the live feed of high school students skate skiing through the streets of Huntsville, Hinterlandia:
http://tldsb.ca/staff/tldsb-tv/?layout=item

Thanks, dogs are just cool as hell

I dig his tail, looks like he has some coyote in him

Is he named after the state or after Johnny Utah from Point Break...love me that movie..lol

Cool link...who should I be cheering for???

campgottagopee wrote

I dig his tail, looks like he has some coyote in him

Good call on the tail. Story is that he has wolf in him, his mother was a well-known street dog way up in Northern Ontario, who was known to be part wolf (no coyotes up there). He has a great tail and coat but missed out on the leg portion. A wolf biologist told me that the black ring is actually the fur being stained by a scent gland, and is a good sign of wolf heritage. He is a rescue dog from here.

campgottagopee wrote

Is he named after the state or after Johnny Utah from Point Break...love me that movie..lol

Both, sort of. We named him Utah because we picked him up just after returning from a road trip there. He was short and sturdy like a rock arch and the colour of the desert. One of my buddies instantly nick-named him "Special Agent Utah" as soon as he met the dog.

campgottagopee wrote

Cool link...who should I be cheering for???

The skinny kid in the black tights .

Yep, that ring is was gave it away...very cool he has wolf heritage, I've always wanted a dog like that but have never come across one. One of my redneck buddies (many years ago) wanted a coyote as a pet, I told him he was nuts b/c he didn't have enough time to put into the venture, but he was hell bent to get one. The only reason I helped him was due to the fact he was gonna do it with or without me and I feared he'd get hurt, hurt bad too. Long story short, we got his pup. The "relationship" lasted about 5 days, visious little bastard, and the ONLY food it would eat was raw veni, if he was real hungry he'd eat raw beef...can't mess w/ MaNatch!!!

Damn !!!   SBR  Yet another fine tale of the Hinterland . Really enjoy your writing , storytelling and sense of adventure . Each episode is a real treat  and  the humor is  refreshing

as my bud  the  Campster said  Utah is a very cool companion !!!!!!

^ Thank you! We just try to have fun sliding on snow and pretty much tell it like it is.

I'm hoping Telemark Dave is out enjoying the fresh snow while I am at work.

The Hinterlandian Snow-Depth-O-Meter went off the scale this morning:

Pretty nice here, however I stayed home with my bed-ridden recovering from surgery on pain killing daughter. :(

Yup.

Got some.  T. R. soon.

(well , maybe not so soon... Gonna' git some more tomorrow.
The way this winter's been.....)


T.D.

And I am still waiting for the iPhone video of me spazzing out in the forest...

Sick Bird Rider wrote

That's pure gold! Do you know what the street value of that is?  

Harvey44 wrote

That's pure gold! Do you know what the street value of that is?  

I've got a tractor with a bucket loader and will happily fill any number of tri-axles sent by the highest bidder.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

And I am still waiting for the iPhone video of me spazzing out in the forest...

Really???

....or is that a retorical statement. (please use retorical font in the future please.)

T.D.

Telemark Dave wrote

....or is that a retorical statement. (please use retorical font in the future please.)

T.D.

Actually, it was a rhetorical statement...

I imagine the rhetorical font to be Olde English or something.