CTA Sec 1 Beginners Tour Feb 7 Report

[Sam Bartlett]

Saturday we had ten people for a Beginner's Tour on Sec
1. Two leaders, two who had skied a CT section or two
and six who were new to skiing on the Catamount Trail.
We started skiing southbound from Harriman Dam. After
the steep snowmobile trail descent (snowplow, sideslip,
walk) we had easy skiing due to the recently added
bridges and the fact that the MDT#4 had skied
northbound the day before. We skied south for three
miles to cars we had left at Rt 100. Beautiful wooded
section along the Deerfield River. It was about 13F so we
tried to keep moving to stay warm.
At Rt 100 four skiers decided to end their adventure on
the Catamount Trail and drove back to the Dam to get
their cars.
Four skiers kept heading south, while I drove down to
Harriman Station so we had a car at the end of the day.
We rejoined and skied down to the
Massachusetts/Vermont boundary marker, following a
flock of turkeys. We saw where yesterday's group had
presumably taken pictures and otherwise acknowleged
the southern end of the CT.
Then we skied back to my car and returned everyone to
their cars. It was 6F when we ended at 4pm and some of
the key fobs didn't want to open the cars!
Great group, thanks everyone!
4.5 hours for 8 miles.
--
Robert "Sam" Bartlett Bartlett Technologies
44 Ashfield Road 413-834-0274
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 www.bart-tech.com

[Phil]

Thanks for the T.R. Sam. Some of the weather gurus are saying we haven't had a stretch of cold like this for 11 or more years. Faye and I were trying to remember back that far and whether the constant schlepping of water out to the animals in the barn was anything that we could recall from that time period. We decided we probably were tougher back then and it didn't register so much. Can't ever recall a key fob being cranky with the cold.