Mountain Meadows at its Best: Black Ski Trail

A few weeks ago, venturing out on the Black Ski Trail was a far fetched dream. I had recently crashed on the ground at the end of going the wrong direction down a steep hill. When I looked up, I saw this sign:

Obviously, this was not going to be the trail for me on that day.

But today, the Black Trail was open and Vespi and I were going to see what was in store for us way out there in the wilderness

We broke off of Purple Trail by following what I believe could only have been the steepest downhill of the trail - followed by the crazy hairpin and then across a huge log bridge. I laughed out loud, amazed that I had actually made it down that damn hill. But then I looked up.

The damage from Tropical Storm Irene was stunning.
Trees had just collapsed onto each other as what was once a narrow winding stream had become this wide, raging river. As the sides disintegrated into the runoff, ankind of tree archway was created.
A Very Eeiry Beautiful.

But we kept winding our way.
Deep and deeper into the woods we traveled...
...and somehow it always felt like we were going downhill.
Over gnarly rollers, down narrow chutes

and all on these damn skinny skis with no edges.
more eeiriness.

We started out around two o'clock with the sun blazing down on us and quickly become aware that it was no longer directly ahead, but starting to sink sown to the horizon.
How long had we been out here?

We kept following the Black Blazes - 8K left, 6K left...
...and we were still skiing downhill.

A lesson I now know all too well.
What goes down, must most definitely come up again.
The final 2K back to the Purple Trail from our lollipop was an exercise in uphill nordic classic.
The Herringbone.

As we finally made pur way back to the windblown lake, I now undstand the meaning of being:
"confident on your skis"

and I survived!!
I can't wait to ski the Beautiful Black Trail again soon :)

May You Find the Spirit of the Mountains Within You,
FemaleSkiBum & Vespoli