On February 10th, the 170th anniversary of the birth of the great Pre-Raphealite painter John William Waterhouse, Davinius rolled all trails to the east of Alturas Lake Creek while the pretty girl from the village waited patiently in the blowing snow.
On Friday, February 8th, the 191st birthday of Jules Verne, as Davinius ginzu groomed the trail to Alturas Lake, his thoughts drifted back to long past adventures from “A Winter Amid the Ice”. As Jules described it, as they spent the night on their furs in an icy wasteland around the 76th degree of latitude in Eastern Greenland, an ice-quake suddenly struck. “The movement lasted nearly two minutes, and it was to be feared that the crevice would yawn at the very feet of the unhappy sailors. They anxiously awaited daylight in the midst of continuous shocks, for they could not, without risk of death, move a step, and had to remain stretched out at full length to avoid being engulfed.” Compared to that night, grooming ski trails seemed like a tame walk in the park. At Alturas, with their snowmobile repaired and running well, Davinius and Chad easily groomed all trails for skating. Classic tracks were laid down on South Loop, Over the Hill and the Trail to the Lake. At Park Creek, with that area’s snow machine suddenly sidelined with a broken axle, Adam headed out with good intentions and a back up machine to touch things up there. His story has not yet been told. In any case, old memories, untold tales and new trails are predicted to fade away quickly as heavy snow is expected to fall this weekend.
After our crippled and left-for-dead back up snowmobile was resurrected with the spark of life by master mechanic and fire chief Scott, grooming resumed at the Alturas Lake ski area on Sunday, February 3rd. After a bumpy gyrating ride to the ski area through deep untracked snow, Davinius rolled all trails to the east of the creek through 5 inches of new snow leaving behind some of the most beautiful corduroyed ridges ever seen. The torch was passed to groomer Chad on Monday who planned to push on to the lake and smooth out the three inches of new snow that fell overnight. Our primary grooming machine is still down and out but in the capable hands of Brian and the Bird man of Woodside waiting for a new starter to arrive. At Park Creek, first man Adam groomed trails on Sunday and went out again on Monday to lay down more of the groovy product that is getting rave reviews from local skiers.
On Saturday, February 2nd, 2019, Bodacious Bocephus, the prognosticating beaver of Alturas Lake, climbed to the roof of his lodge and looked down amongst the twigs for any sign of his shadow. There was none to be found. He then stared up at the sunless grey sky and mumbled, snorted, squeaked and grunted the following prognostications. Although some in the crowd in attendance could not quite agree, he predicted something along these lines. Good skiing in the Sawtooth Valley until April Fools! Grunt! The snow machine from Alturas Lake will be fixed next week but it will cost a lot of money! Uggghhh! Skiing until then will almost certainly be better at Park Creek where Adam touched things up on Friday. He will return on Sunday weather permitting! Squeak, snort… The Greek shall inherit the earth! Sniff… grunt. The willows will be thick and juicy in the spring! Sniffle. The 17th annual ski fest will be a blast. Harumphh! Davinius will resign from his position as El Presidente when a photo of him in a Halloween beaver suit standing next to a trapper is revealed on his high school yearbook page. Gurgle, snort. Things are gonna get better and all’s well that ends well! Hmmmm…
Recent Comments