Sunday (Jan 25) John and I loaded our sleds, crampons, snowshoes, and backpacks into the Mini Cooper and headed up to Pack Monadnock and Temple Mountain for a day of backcountry sledding. It was a great day, not the least because we survived the drive home.
We were heading south on US 202, driving close to the posted limit of 50 mph. It was a sunny, but cold afternoon. Visibility was good and the road was dry. Up ahead I saw a curve and two cars stopped on the shoulder of our lane. Across the road, an SUV was stopped on the shoulder facing the other way. As I entered the curve, we hit a large patch of black ice and started a four wheel slide towards the two stopped cars and the women standing beside them. Then the ice ended and the front wheels grabbed sudden traction; the rear end fishtailed and I countersteered to regain control. Then we were fishtailing the opposite direction but I countersteered again and thought I was about to drive out of it. By now we were across the yellow line into the oncoming traffic lane, and there was a car oncoming. I turned the wheel to get back in my lane and must have overcorrected, because next thing I knew we were 180 degrees around, in the correct lane, but going backwards. We passed the oncoming car by a wide margin, but were heading (backwards) towards the icy snowbank at the edge of our lane. I slammed on the brakes and we stopped inches from the snowbank. John and I just looked at each other and said "Holy Shit!" The smell of burned rubber and maybe burned transmission filled the air. We walked around the car but saw no damage. So I did a u-turn and we continued on our way. In the rear view mirror I saw the women walking across the road to talk to the people in the SUV. My guess is that the SUV also hit the ice, did a 180 and was facing the wrong way but on the other side of the road. Several minutes later a parade of emergency vehicles (ambulance, police car, maybe a firetruck) came flying towards us with lights flashing and sirens blaring heading towards the stopped vehicles. What they really needed was a salt truck. Several times on the drive home, we just broke into laughter, so relieved to have escaped without injury.
John at the base of Pack Monadnock.
The 180 was definitely the most memorable event of the day, but the sledding was a lot of fun too and, at the time, seemed more risky than driving to and from the mountain. We got to Pack Monadnock about 8:30 and geared up in the 3 degree F parking lot. Fingers numb with cold we began hiking up the summer toll road, now buried by a couple feet of snow. Soon we were sweating and peeled off our coats and hung them from our packs. At the top, we climbed the lookout tower and inspected the trails at Temple Mountain across the highway; we were going there after lunch. Then we unstrapped our sleds and headed down the trail to the sledders' left of the toll road.
Looking across at Temple Mtn from the top of Pack Monadnock.
The trail was boot packed and not steep enough to be fun on our sleds, so we found short shots through the powder and very dense trees off the side of the trail. Unfortunately, the trail didn't switchback, so after every little run, we had to climb back up to the trail. But we had fun going off some little rocks covered in snow. Back in parking lot, another hiker told us we picked the "bad" trail. The trail to the right of the toll road stays in the fall line and is more fun for hiking and, presumably, sledding.
At the Temple Mountain parking lot we ate a quick lunch and queried other hikers/skiers/snowboarders about the trails. Temple Mountain was a ski resort that closed in 1991. The only sign of the resort are the trails cut into the forest, which is quickly filling in those same trails with groves of little saplings. A sign in the parking lot says LCHIP, which is The New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, "an independent state authority that makes matching grants to NH communities and non-profits to conserve and preserve New Hampshire's most important natural, cultural and historic resources."
Mario (with snowboard) and John hiking up Temple Mtn.
We met Mario, a snowboarder, and walked up the Wapack trail, which was totally packed down. We had on snowshoes, but could have just as easily walked up in boots. The Wapack trail must have been an old service road. It gradually wound its way up to the top and we didn't even get out of breath on the climb. At the top we met a couple more snowboarders and found a short open run with a couple of drops. The boarders and sledders took turns watching each other get some air. I went off a big round boulder with about an 8-foot drop to the powder below. Then we split up and took different routes to the bottom. It was fun to have longer runs than at Pack Monadnock, but the trails just weren't steep enough. First tracks often meant using your hands to push along the flat spots.
Phillip and John at top of Temple Mtn with Pack Monadnock in the background
From the picnic area at the bottom, we hiked straight up a ski slope, and it would have been tough going without snowshoes. The climb had me huffing and puffing, but it let us scout out a great second run. At the top we met the snowboarders again and took a video of them getting air off a 10-foot rock. I took my sled down the side of the same rock, in a series of 3 step-like drops. I climbed back up and launched off the other side of the rock landing in a tiny clearing between a boulder and a downed tree. These jumps were all seemed pretty scary while sitting at the top trying to get up the nerve to push off, but the snow was so deep and soft that the reality of the jump was a bit anti-climatic. Still, I did get a little rush each time. After playing around up top for awhile, we headed back down to the base. We followed a trail put in by a snowboarder sometime in the past week. On flatter sections we stayed on the packed trail to keep our speed up. On the steeper pitches, we shot into the powder next to the track and carved some turns. It was almost a top to bottom run, prevented only by a couple of wipeouts.
One of the best parts of the day was the people we met. We hiked with Mario the snowboarder and learned he is the Dean of Education at Lesley University and lives in the town next to ours. The two college-age boarders were Norbert and Andrew and it was fun to see what the kids could do on their boards and what we old guys could do on our sleds. We were all united in our desire to play in the snow and mountains without spending $60 to $90 for lift tickets. So we shared some information about potential sledding / boarding sites and exchanged email addresses.
Another happy encounter was with another older guy getting out his sled at the base of Pack Monadnock while we were putting ours away and getting ready to move over to Temple Mountain. He had a HammerHead sled, something like a hightech Flexible Flyer. He sleds headfirst lying on his stomach and says he really gets moving down the packed Toll Road. Probably a lot of fun but I prefer the off trail powder and freesledding made possible by the Mad River Rockets. Of course, if your knees aren't flexible enough to kneel on a Rocket sled, a HammerHead might be a reasonable alternative.
Anyhow, this guy was showing us his sled when he realized that one of the replaceable runners had fallen off his sled. It wasn't in the car so he was going to drive back home to see if it was in his basement. He was just saying that he hoped he didn't lose it last weekend when he was sledding at Pack Monadnock, when he looked across the parking lot and saw the missing runner stuck in a snow bank near the trailhead. I got a great feeling because this fellow was going to be able to enjoy playing in the snow instead of driving home on a fruitless search for a missing runner.
Phillip and John toast the end of a good day sledding.
Temple Mtn in the background.
We were heading south on US 202, driving close to the posted limit of 50 mph. It was a sunny, but cold afternoon. Visibility was good and the road was dry. Up ahead I saw a curve and two cars stopped on the shoulder of our lane. Across the road, an SUV was stopped on the shoulder facing the other way. As I entered the curve, we hit a large patch of black ice and started a four wheel slide towards the two stopped cars and the women standing beside them. Then the ice ended and the front wheels grabbed sudden traction; the rear end fishtailed and I countersteered to regain control. Then we were fishtailing the opposite direction but I countersteered again and thought I was about to drive out of it. By now we were across the yellow line into the oncoming traffic lane, and there was a car oncoming. I turned the wheel to get back in my lane and must have overcorrected, because next thing I knew we were 180 degrees around, in the correct lane, but going backwards. We passed the oncoming car by a wide margin, but were heading (backwards) towards the icy snowbank at the edge of our lane. I slammed on the brakes and we stopped inches from the snowbank. John and I just looked at each other and said "Holy Shit!" The smell of burned rubber and maybe burned transmission filled the air. We walked around the car but saw no damage. So I did a u-turn and we continued on our way. In the rear view mirror I saw the women walking across the road to talk to the people in the SUV. My guess is that the SUV also hit the ice, did a 180 and was facing the wrong way but on the other side of the road. Several minutes later a parade of emergency vehicles (ambulance, police car, maybe a firetruck) came flying towards us with lights flashing and sirens blaring heading towards the stopped vehicles. What they really needed was a salt truck. Several times on the drive home, we just broke into laughter, so relieved to have escaped without injury.
John at the base of Pack Monadnock.
Looking across at Temple Mtn from the top of Pack Monadnock.The trail was boot packed and not steep enough to be fun on our sleds, so we found short shots through the powder and very dense trees off the side of the trail. Unfortunately, the trail didn't switchback, so after every little run, we had to climb back up to the trail. But we had fun going off some little rocks covered in snow. Back in parking lot, another hiker told us we picked the "bad" trail. The trail to the right of the toll road stays in the fall line and is more fun for hiking and, presumably, sledding.
At the Temple Mountain parking lot we ate a quick lunch and queried other hikers/skiers/snowboarders about the trails. Temple Mountain was a ski resort that closed in 1991. The only sign of the resort are the trails cut into the forest, which is quickly filling in those same trails with groves of little saplings. A sign in the parking lot says LCHIP, which is The New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, "an independent state authority that makes matching grants to NH communities and non-profits to conserve and preserve New Hampshire's most important natural, cultural and historic resources."
Mario (with snowboard) and John hiking up Temple Mtn.
Phillip and John at top of Temple Mtn with Pack Monadnock in the backgroundFrom the picnic area at the bottom, we hiked straight up a ski slope, and it would have been tough going without snowshoes. The climb had me huffing and puffing, but it let us scout out a great second run. At the top we met the snowboarders again and took a video of them getting air off a 10-foot rock. I took my sled down the side of the same rock, in a series of 3 step-like drops. I climbed back up and launched off the other side of the rock landing in a tiny clearing between a boulder and a downed tree. These jumps were all seemed pretty scary while sitting at the top trying to get up the nerve to push off, but the snow was so deep and soft that the reality of the jump was a bit anti-climatic. Still, I did get a little rush each time. After playing around up top for awhile, we headed back down to the base. We followed a trail put in by a snowboarder sometime in the past week. On flatter sections we stayed on the packed trail to keep our speed up. On the steeper pitches, we shot into the powder next to the track and carved some turns. It was almost a top to bottom run, prevented only by a couple of wipeouts.
One of the best parts of the day was the people we met. We hiked with Mario the snowboarder and learned he is the Dean of Education at Lesley University and lives in the town next to ours. The two college-age boarders were Norbert and Andrew and it was fun to see what the kids could do on their boards and what we old guys could do on our sleds. We were all united in our desire to play in the snow and mountains without spending $60 to $90 for lift tickets. So we shared some information about potential sledding / boarding sites and exchanged email addresses.
Another happy encounter was with another older guy getting out his sled at the base of Pack Monadnock while we were putting ours away and getting ready to move over to Temple Mountain. He had a HammerHead sled, something like a hightech Flexible Flyer. He sleds headfirst lying on his stomach and says he really gets moving down the packed Toll Road. Probably a lot of fun but I prefer the off trail powder and freesledding made possible by the Mad River Rockets. Of course, if your knees aren't flexible enough to kneel on a Rocket sled, a HammerHead might be a reasonable alternative.
Anyhow, this guy was showing us his sled when he realized that one of the replaceable runners had fallen off his sled. It wasn't in the car so he was going to drive back home to see if it was in his basement. He was just saying that he hoped he didn't lose it last weekend when he was sledding at Pack Monadnock, when he looked across the parking lot and saw the missing runner stuck in a snow bank near the trailhead. I got a great feeling because this fellow was going to be able to enjoy playing in the snow instead of driving home on a fruitless search for a missing runner.
Phillip and John toast the end of a good day sledding.Temple Mtn in the background.
After the last run of the day, we loaded the gear in the Mini, toasted our adventure with a Harpoon Winter Warmer (totally unrelated to the subsequent 180) and shared Julie's excellent cookies with the snowboarders. Then we drove to Harvard, Mass to hear a lecture by John's friend Richard Higgins, author of As High a Heaven: Meditating on Trees with Thoreau. We were wearing sweaty outdoors clothes and our hair was pretty wild, but when we explained we were just coming from hiking the woods we fit right in with the tree hugging crowd.
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