Thanks for all the trip reports today. You may have missed this one from Courtney. For some unknown reason it was held in the moderation queue. I know many readers will be interested in West Bragg conditions.
West Bragg Creek – And a Snow Shoers Advisory!
I skied West Bragg today and what a lovely day! There was about 2 inches of beautiful new snow. I decided to try a ski on the wild side and tried the trails north of the parking lot for a change: the Hostel loop and a tiny bit out and back on the Telephone Trail. At noon I was still the first skier on the trails; unfortunately 3 snowshoers had already gone ahead of me, and they failed to take the snow shoe trail, Snow Shoe Hare, which circumnavigates the Hostel Loop trail.
Snow Shoers – the start of the Snow Shoe Hare trail is not well marked where it leaves the ski trail. It is quite close to the parking lot, and you have to look into the trees on the right to see the florescent snow shoe trail signs. I don’t know if a sign is missing, because I’ve snow shoed that trail before and I didn’t notice the turn-off today either. It is untracked since the last snow. Every single snow shoe print follows the ski trail, unfortunately.
Anyway, the Hostel Loop had about 3 places where grass or rocks were peeking through the snow, and thin cover in a couple more spots. It is ungroomed, but good enough for me! I just love being outside in the woods in nice weather. I skied counter-clockwise and the very last stretch, the gradual downhill, was snow shoe print free, and fun. In the sunniest spots the snow was clumping to the bottom of my waxless skis something awful. So I had to get out my emergency chunk of parafin and give them a good coating, which stopped the snow from sticking.
Was back home in time to get my son from school.
