Bath, 2012
My friend Forest rented out a whole BNB for a week and invited a bunch of us to join him for however long we could. I took him up on it and did some skiing and snow shoeing.
Friday February 10, 2012
I'd managed find a car enabled person who was going for the same nights I
was, and after double checking that my skis would fit in her car (go go
gadget Pennsic vehicle), we made plans for Sara to pick me up after work
on Friday. I had agreed to cook dinner for the group on two nights (teach
me to volunteer a choice of recipes and to say okay when Forest said yes
to both), so I stopped at the supermarket on the way home to grab the last
few non perishable ingredients. I'd made up the jerk sauce for the chicken
the night before and due to copious reminder notes managed to get it out
of the fridge and into Sara's car when she pulled up. I had a fair amount
of stuff, since I was bringing my snow shoes and cooking supplies along
with my skis and my clothes and sleeping bag/pad/pillow in case I didn't
get a bed, but everything fit well and we were soon off on the road north.
It was pretty much a straight shot up 93 then a winding car sickness
inducing crawl along 112. The upside of that dark stretch was that we saw
a wolf (!), a hare and a skunk.
It took about three hours to get up there, and I was surprised to see so
few cars in the lot already, we had a shot at beds! :) Forest and Vanessa
were there already, as our main organisers, and Jim and Jessica had driven
up earlier today as well. Erik and Amelia, old friends of Forest's, were
also there by then (and I'm probably going to forget who was there when).
Sara and I were able to claim two beds in a three single bed room, dropped
our stuff and I was quick to climb into my swimsuit and hit the hot tub in
the attached barn. Most everyone had been in there when we arrived and
Rick (the caretaker) gave us a tour, but people were mostly cooked by the
time I got back and I think I hung out with just Jim and Jessica for a
while. I changed into some warm loungy clothes (I'd brought a corduroy
skirt and wool sweaters and tall socks) and sat by the fire talking with
people until I realised that it was past 1am and ran to bed after some
drunken grilled cheese making on the big grill in the kitchen. I had a
hard time sleeping until I put ear plugs in.
Saturday February 11, 2012
I stumbled down to the kitchen at around 7am and think I attempted speech
with Forest before getting enough tea to be coherent, sorry about that. :)
Rick and the owner were on had to make us a pile of breakfast food, the
gingerbread pancakes and fruit salad were great, and I had some scrambled
eggs, home made bread and a small donut. I ran upstairs to brush my teeth
and get changed for skiing and nabbed a seat in ... either Jim or Forest's
car as we headed up to Bretton Woods. It was a nice drive, and I got to
see the mountains in the daylight. I had bought a discount ticket from
Jim, and it just had to be attached to my jacket and I was ready to go. We
started at around 10, and met up for lunch again at 1pm. I was on my own
most of the morning, ranging around the slopes trying to find terrain that
I liked with as little ice as possible. The blues weren't
challenging, but most of the blacks I saw had thin cover. I finally found
a super short but super steep black and ended up sticking with it most of
the day. After lunch I'd meet up with a few of the others on the lifts and
do a run or two, but I was mostly on my own. We stayed until the isolated
lifts closed at just before 4pm. I had a hard time finding people in the
lodge because they were tucked in the corner beyond the band, but a text
message soon sorted me out. They finished up their drinks and we were soon
back on the road. I was definitely with Forest and Vanessa this time, we
stopped at the Shaws to pick up the chicken thighs that I needed to make
dinner, and they got salad fixin's. I also picked up some tonic water, as
Sara had bribed me with gin to feed her. :)
Kevin and Sarah arrived today, and Sarah greeted me with a big hug in the
kitchen. She and I shared the stove as she made their vegan meal, I dove
right into preparing the rice and peas once we got back to the house. Got
that into the oven, a quadrupled recipe in my glass casserole dish, but
wasn't happy with how it turned out - it could probably stand to go in at a
higher temperature, or for much longer. Sara and Forest helped me out by
cutting up four packages of chicken, and I got it into the marinade for 20
minutes before sorting out a second big pot and spoons to stir them. The
big stove in the kitchen was a bit of a challenge, it had two simmer
burners and three regular ones, but one would only go at the high level.
Got it to work out eventually though, and people were appreciative of the
chicken at least. It was funny, Jim didn't remember quizzing me about the
rice and peas the night before. :)
After dinner, I finally got out of my ski clothes, took a shower and then
had a dip in the hot tub for a while. Others had the same idea, we were
soon over flowing it. Nate and Keeley had also arrived. I'm pretty sure we
stayed up talking until 1am again this night. Brian arrived this evening
as well, and he took the third bed in our room. Another pair of Canucks
was expected, but arrived later than anticipated and kept us up talking
once they did arrive. Radek and BT had met Forest through Brian and a Gwar
show, and we all had fun playing outnumber the Americans. ;)
Sunday February 12, 2012
I'd seen the forecast earlier in the week that warned of frigid
temperatures this day, and it was pretty bloody cold. Jim and Jessica and
I had all bought prepaid lift tickets (via Liftopia) to Burke in VT and
were determined to go. After another lovely breakfast of gingerbread
pancakes &c, I swapped my skis from Forest's car to Jim's in the morning
and when I came back in to check on the breakfast eaters, people could
feel the cold radiating off my jacket. It was brisk outside. The drive
was estimated at an hour, but felt shorter. I was on my own most of the
day, it took us a while to get started, we didn't hit the slopes until
11am. I did one run on the easy lift, but Jim and Jess were still getting
sorted out and they sent me on my way. I made my way to the advanced
terrain lift and found happiness. :) The Upper and Lower Dipper run was a
drop and level sort of run, and Willoughby was more straight down (both
nice advanced intermediate runs).
The mountain says it has 2011 vertical feet, but even if only half of that
is
on the advanced mountain, I felt like I was getting a workout. There were
races that day, I went up on the lift (it was pretty empty in general, I
think I waited for three people at the most in front of me) with one of
the racers at one point. It was bitterly cold though, I stopped at noon
for a hot chocolate and almost mugged someone walking by with electric
boot warmers. I stopped again at 1pm to meet J&J for lunch in the lower
lodge and to warm up. Lingered until 2pm and then skied again until 3 and
was done. It was gorgeous, and snowed a bit up top, just enough to be
pretty and cover a tiny bit of the ice. I wish more of the terrain hadn't
been marked low cover, I ended up on one run like that because the race
hill was blocked off. I'd love to go back when they've got more snow, and
it's warmer!
Forest had gone out to get the chicken thighs for the chicken adobo I was
planning to make, so we headed straight back to the BNB after packing up
the car. Someone not Brian was in Brian's bed when I went up to drop my
stuff, turns out that Radek had been unable to sleep well in the front
room due to the cold coming off the windows by the couch and he'd come up
for a nap. I went back to the kitchen and measured out two pots with the
sauce and got the rice simmering, but had to side track Brian to help with
the big pot of rice as it wasn't cooking like I was used to with smaller
servings. The chicken cooked up great though, and there were no leftovers.
Keeley helped me to set the table, and Sarah made her and Kevin's dinner
at the same time as well. I claimed the seat near the fire at the table,
it was a lovely relaxed time (someone probably told people not to quiz me
on the provenance of the recipe :) ). I went up for a shower right after
dinner was done, and was surprised at all the layers I had to take off,
I'd forgotten about a couple of them! The fleece tanktop with integrated
bra paid for itself that day, my core wasn't cold at all, just my fingers
and toes. I saw someone with a boot cover that he said helped a bit, and I
found my toes were coldest when I'd wriggle them and they'd hit the top of
my boot, so they might be a worthwhile purchase if I plan to ski in such
cold weather again (it was -14C in the town at the bottom of the mountain,
didn't want to know what it was at the peak). I had the hottub to myself
this time, almost slipping on the ice that had formed on the step up. Got
back into loungy clothes and joined the crew in the front room again for a
little while. The game room was in full use this time, with a 3 hour
Battlestar Galactica game taking up most of the time I was in the BNB. We
all watched a couple of episodes of Archer, and then headed to bed.
Monday February 13, 2012
I got all (I thought) of my stuff packed up into Sara's car before
grabbing my snow shoes and joining Forest and Vanessa in their car to
drive to Loon (Sara agreed to pick me up there at 2pm for the drive back
to Boston). Vanessa and I had a bit of an oddessy trying to get her a pair
of rental snowshoes. The Adventure Center was closed, with no sign on it.
The first lodge had a guy outside who directed us to guest services
inside, who directed us to the rental place at the other lodge. We rode
the steam train across the parking lot, it was cute. :) At the rental
place they told us the Adventure Center opened at 10, and as it was now 5
to 10, we walked back there. Finally got her outfitted, used the
restroom, paid our trail fee ($11) and got a lift to the snow shoe/cross
country ski trails at around 10:30. Our ride would re-appear at 12:30, and
we set off along a fairly level green trail. Once we intersected with the
black trails I tempted V into trying them out. A bit of a climb up the
ridge and then we were following the ridge with a bit of a view over the
mountains. Heard lots of birds, enjoyed the sun, and we were out of the
wind for the most part. I kept taking off my gloves to let my hands cool
down, I was never cold. We misread the trail map a bit and ended up going
down an up only trail, figure after the fact that it's probably that way
to allow the skiers to herringbone up w/o worrying about people bombing
down. The snow was plentiful, if covered in an icy crust, so it wasn't
100% necessary to be on shoes but it was fun. :) We got back to the
warming hut just 5 minutes early, I took a quick peek down the river side
trail but the drop off was steep and the river frozen so it wasn't that
picturesque. Back to the Adventure Centre and then back to the lodge to
meet the others for lunch at 1pm. I said goodbye to everyone and was
outside just before Sara picked me up at 2pm. I ended up napping a bit on
the way home, waking up enough to buy a bottle at the NH liquor store on
the highway and then zoned out for the rest of the trip. I realised when I
was unpacking the car that I'd forgotten my tempurpedic pillow but some
emails and texts to the people still there led it to be found and I soon
stopped panicking. My nice serving spoon was also found, but the
tupperware I'd left the jerk chicken leftovers in was MIA, but I was happy
to get back the important things. :)
I'd happily go back to both the BNB and the mountains we visited, it was
hard to resist renting skis and getting on the slopes at Loon. More snow,
less cold would be better as well, so I have hopes for next year.
Back to my diary page.