Saturday, March 7, 2009

Strawberry Lake Road ski

Saturday, March 7 I skied with Joyce, Kendra, and Greg on forest service road 5390 that goes to the trail head for Strawberry Lake in the Jewel Basin. Apparently our jaunt to Bowman Lake earlier in the week didn't scare off Kendra and Greg from skiing with Joyce and I.

Kendra and Greg live a short distance from where we skied and know the area.


The forest service road is closed for the winter to vehicles which made it perfect for skiing. We had gotten a few inches of snow a few days earlier so we had fresh snow to ski on. The new snow depth wasn't much and the snow was slippery/fast in some areas. Also the road was not flat for the most part as much of it went consistently up, though at a mostly reasonable rate.

Along the way we saw a tree whose bark had been clawed off by a bear.


We met a young couple who were returning. The man was pulling a green plastic sled which was fully enclosed. A very young child - almost a baby - was inside and sleeping soundly. The man pulling the sled was getting a workout!

The young couple didn't go all the way to the end of the road as I noticed from their ski tracks they had turned around a half mile or so from the end when the road got steeper. We were then the only tracks as we continued on to the end.

Greg and Kendra brought their dog, Max, with us.


At the end of the road the trail to Strawberry Lake began with a simple bridge over a creek. I had been here once before in the 1990s when I hiked up to Strawberry Lake on this trail.


On the way back I did well skiing down the steeper sections and turns and only did one or two controlled crashes where I couldn't get turned correctly and at that speed was heading to go off the trail and into the trees.

Once I got to the less steep areas I was skiing slowly when I crashed. Sure, I make it down the steep sections and crash when it got easier. This fall has me tangled and my shoe came off the ski. Earlier that week I had fallen over and cracked the sole of my left shoe. Now the part of the sole from the crack under the ball of my foot to the front came off the shoe.

When I crashed I almost got run over as Joyce and Kendra were close behind me. I moved and they moved just enough that they got by. Greg ended up crashing.

Unlike the previous time where my right shoe's sole came off I wasn't unable to clip my shoe into the ski. The skis I was using were Bill's and they had a slightly different hold mechanism for the shoe and I couldn't pinch the front of my shoe into the ski.

I had two miles left to ski down hill.  I had no choice but to try to ski by placing my shoe on the ski without locking it in. In effect skiing on one and a half skis.

For the most part this worked. However when I encountered rough snow this would cause the ski to leave my foot. Then one time there was a patch of ground and my ski suddenly stopped while I kept going. *crash*

Other than the young couple we saw earlier the only other people we met was a guy on a snowmobile pulling another guy on skis up the road. Naturally I had to meet them when I was pretty much skiing on one ski. Thankfully I was able to stay to one side of the road as we passed each other.

I made it down the mountain but I tell you it was harder than skiing up!

I made it to the parking lot well before the others. How did that happen? "Watch out! Crazy guy on one ski coming through!"

While waiting for the others I noticed a car with a large bumper sticker on the driver's door. I liked the sticker though I wouldn't have placed it on my car door.


After we finished skiing we returned to Greg and Kendra's home to have a meal and chat. They had canned antelope they had made and this made excellent sandwiches along with brussel sprouts.

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