OUR
COMMENTS - January, 2002
Winter Fun
Since our last posting in October, we have spent considerably more time at First Mountain as a result of Ginger's decision to leave her company. Fall lasted a little longer than usual and snow didn't arrive in any significant amount until just before Christmas. There remains a small amount of interior work to complete at the cottage, but we have been in no hurry to finish the job. Most of the fall work consisted of cutting and splitting firewood, building a new shingled wood shed to store the firewood, and finishing the utility shed and its enclosed pass-thru firewood box for the woodstove. Those chores prepared us to meet the winter cold, and once done, we managed to spend more time trail clearing and scouting trail layout on the mountain.
As I write these comments in this last week of January,
an unusual warm spell and thaw has developed over the last few days both
here at the Maine home and at First Mountain. The recent 50 degree
plus temperatures have also effected most of
the rest of the
Northern United States. However, snow was abundant and accumulating
nearly every day at First Mountain from Christmas until just five days ago
when the thaw began and snowshoeing and cross country skiing were then a
part of our daily activities. The photo at left reveals the snow cover along
the wetlands on First Mountain in early January. We now have large open expanses
of bare ground at our home near the Maine coast and likely also up at First
Mountain, though we haven't returned to the mountain since the thaw began.
It is now hard to imagine snowshoeing and skiing through the woods
as we did just a week ago to visit our Shelburne neighbor, Lala, for a tea
break or dinner. A January thaw is normal in the Northeast, but we really
haven't had the usual cold winter to precede it. December temperatures averaged
more than eight degrees above normal and broke a century old record. The
smaller mammals who live in the sub-nivean world below the snow's surface
will be at risk as their tunnels collapse during this early thaw and they
are exposed to freezing water. The mild temperatures and thaw are probably
beneficial to deer that struggled so much last winter and will probably provide
a bounty of available small mammals for larger predators for a short time
also. The result may be a shortage of food for those same predators
at the end of the winter, though small mammals have a great ability to quickly
reproduce when their numbers have declined.
We bought annual passes for both the Great Glen Trails and Nansen Ski Trail systems and have already skied enough during the past three weeks to make their purchase warranted. Great Glen's trails are on the east flank of Mount Washington adjacent to the the famed Auto Road and near Pinkham Notch. We are training for a 50 kilometer classic ski race in March that begins at Great Glen, proceeds around the north flank of Mount Madison, and continues over the Jefferson Notch and down to Bretton Woods on Mount Washington's west flank. The Great Glen Trails system is relatively small and designed for competitive training and races, but is meticulously groomed and graced with abundant natural snow. The Auto Road is groomed and packed by a Snow Coach that takes passengers up to the Four mile marker and we have skied up as far as the two mile point as part of our training regimen and practised holding a snow plow for a continuous two mile downhill run. When the snows return, we will be back and hope to eventually reach the Four Mile marker. Photos of Great Glen are posted at the bottom of this page.
The Nansen Trails, maintained by a non-profit ski club, offer a much larger trail network among commercial timberland on the north side of the Mahoosuc Mountains just east of Berlin, NH. The trails are groomed by volunteers and principally serve classic skiers. The feeling there is much wilder and you encounter local skiers out enjoying their travel in the woods and very few of the lycra clad speed skiers. The views are not quite as spectacular as the White Mountain summits seen from Great Glen, but are impressive in their own right, with frequent viewpoints to the Mahoosucs northern peaks.
A year ago, I reported on Shelburne's attempt to pass new zoning that would provide protection to forest land in our narrow river valley and the resulting failure of the town's voters to adopt the proposed measures. New zoning proposals will again be on the ballot at town meeting this coming March and they include most of the earlier provisions with some modifications. The Forest District will now be limited to fifteen acre lots, instead of thirty acres as originally proposed last year, and will allow development above 1,400 feet elevation by special exception only. The new proposal now includes a well thought out Valley District to include all land between the north forest district and the railroad tracks just south of the Androscoggin River. If passed, our First Mountain Forest will fall equally in both of those districts. Modifications have mostly appeased the property rights supporters who fought last year's zoning proposal, so I hope I will be able to report adoption of these measures in my next Owner's Comments posting.
Larry
Winter Update: Winter temperatures returned at the end of January and eight inches of snow fell at the Maine home between noon on the 31st and the next morning. The mountain should have received in excess of a foot of snow and nightly sub-zero temperatures are forecast for the next several days at First Mountain. Winter is back.
Images from Great Glen Ski Trails
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
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