Boar's Nestin'

looking at the forecast has not
been lifting my spirits lately.
hitting that damn tree didn't
do much for motivation, but still...

gotta get it while it's there. body's
been showing signs of fatigue, all
I need to do now is get sick, legs
have little to no snap right now,
been charging since Jack Frost
back in early Dec, it's been game
on, just been getting better and
better and better and better....
and it's almost time for a qwik
break, almost, or at least dial
it back just a bit.

get it while the gettin's good.
but get what? half gimped up,
no legs left for chasing turns,
so go out on tour, go exploring,
gather beta for the next time and
the time after that. Liked the glades
I saw on the ski up FlatRock a couple
weeks back, Boar's Nest is on similar
aspect, as well as a more direct route
to the top, let's give it a go, why not?

traveling solo, in unknown terrain,
gotta keep that in mind. weather
looks reasonable, but today isn't
the day to be a hero, best to ski
smart, will challenge myself sure,
but don't take any silly risks, you're
on your own out there. The pack is
loaded, plenty of calories on board,
warm jacket, an extra wool top, thick
gloves, spaceblanket bivy, fire sticks,
spare binding bits, etc..be prepared.

8am departe, bit of a fireroad approach
then a fun route finding schwack to cross
the creek and find the blue diamonds.
Got suckered onto an old railbed, see
more sweet ice, then slap on the skins
and climb for real to pick up the trail.

Spot a couple nice glades down low,
but soon enshrouded in a birch and
rhodo tunnel for the bulk of the 1400ft
climb. forget about scouting the off
piste, enjoy the singletrack tour and
see where it takes me. lot's of techy
moves across the plains, the 3' of pow
that was up here is consolidating into
18-20" of consistent wet mank, and
draining into the trailbed. lots of open
exposed spots on the trail, tough going
along the edges at times, then back into
the tunnels, now spruce lined instead of
the dense rhodo thickets.

A nice 4hr ski finds me up on FR 70 and
looking at the map, looking at the clock,
thinking about options...sure would be
nice to see one of these overlooks, hmmm,
that closest one could be another hour
away, which will add about 2hrs to the trip,
then add on the expected 2hr descent/cruise
out and that's an 8hr day and a missed WG
nacho platter.

South Prong it is, turn tail, turn left and
kick n glide along FR70 to the SPT. Make
an attempt to boot up the trail to a marked
'view', but again, it's cloudy out, it's a bit
further than expected, look at the clock
and sit down to have a snack before
dropping into the descent.

hope to see some open glades over in this
drainage, but it's more more more rhodo
thicket on down to the lower elevations.
snow is super duper slow manky mank,
descending isn't really offering much in
the way of 'coasting.' lots of false flat
kick n glide back out to the fireroad,
mix in a handful of techy spring seep
crossings and FR19 is a welcome sight.

Can't get to the car qwik enough,
unclip the bindings one final time
and punch the clock at 6.5 elapsed,
a nice solid day on the skis.

Commute to WG and ogle at the
terrain that awaits now that I can
see the tops of these hills, lots
of tastiness out there...

Reach WG, settle into the dreamt
of nachos then jump in behind the
counter, learn on the go and lend
a hand refilling the rental rack
and hanging up boots, what a hoot!
Great to see everybody again!!!

Sunday, woke up and it was raining,
ick. Wanted to do something, so I
went to BW Falls like a good tourist
and took a picture.

fin.