On Sunday, the 10th of January, “a winter’s day, a bitter snowflake on my face”, all the skating lanes on the East side of Alturas Lake Creek were groomed to remove fat tire bike ruts and trail walkers’ post holed foot prints.
On Saturday, the 9th of January, hikers and bikers, despite their no doubt good intentions, left behind some bad impressions at the Alturas Lake Ski Trails. The old groomer Davinius had done his best to remove some bumps and holes and imperfections in the trail system that morning, smoothing out North Cabin, Sheep Thrills, South Loop, Over the Hill, Wapiti, the Connector, and the Trail to the Lake as far as the bridge. Thinking that the trails looked as good as they had all season, he returned in the afternoon with his skis and poles for a bit of kick and glide. And he had to admit he had a pretty good time, his skate along the creekside with the pretty girl from the village was lovely and fine, but those 4 inch deep tire slashes and foot print pot holes were a sad distraction. Why was there always something holding him back from the perfect experience? It seemed that kicks kept getting harder to find and the glide was never quite long enough. More grooming is now scheduled for Sunday.
Friday morning was beautiful at the Alturas Lake ski area. Laying down classic tracks on the way to the Lake, old groomer Davinius happened to look up from the flat corduroyed trail to see a strange bird sighting indeed, two silver winged warthogs flying low over the lodgepole pines. He wondered at such a strange juxtaposition for this wild place and these modern times. Over the Hill, South Loop, Sheep Thrills, Wapiti and the connector were also groomed . North Cabin was compacted on Thursday but was still very rough in spots and not recommended. More flattening there is scheduled for Saturday. All other trails might be described as very good indeed.
At Park Creek, trails also looked good and were groomed for skate and classic.
On January 8th, the birthday of Elvis, a pale rising sun slowly illuminated the grey sky above the Sawtooth Valley until it merged totally with the snowscaped hills below and all the world seemed to glow a light light grey. The temperature was about 20 degrees at 9 a.m. On Thursday, all the trails at the Alturas lake ski area, except for Sheep Thrills, were groomed with some combo of the Smiley Creek Piston Bully and our own Ginzu Groomer. Further refinement of that grooming, to smooth out some ridges, fill in some holes and cut classic tracks to the lake, is scheduled for Friday. The trails are now wide and flat and should be most excellent for the upcoming sun filled weekend.
At Park Creek, after some equipment hiccups, the new grooming team is off and running…trails were rolled on Thursday and classic tracks were being worked on.
At the Alturas Lake ski area on January the 6th, in celebration of the feast day of those mystical magi, the three Kings, Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar , the previously blocked trails of Wapiti and the Connector were cleared of the last three fallen aspen still sticking out of the deep snow banks. The trails were then packed with three separate passes with the snowmobile only, quickly followed by three passes pulling the roller. The final result was an epiphany, looking divinely skiable but probably still a bit soft. The Trail to the Lake, Over the Hill, and South Loop were also all rolled for skating. And even though wind blown snow skimmed across the open meadows, quickly glazing over corduroy and classic tracks alike, a skate skier arriving at the lake, declared the morphing trail to be “fantastic and so much fun!”
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