More Photos Below!Gallery
We’ve had the best winter ever this year. Skiing every day since mid-Dec. Then last week our luck broke and we got a few days of warm and rain. But not TOO bad. Still, it marked a major transition for the snowpack. Time for something new…but what? Ice? Crust?
This year’s Stinch occurred right at this dividing line.
Skiing last week during the warm-up was kinda silly: nothing really worked. The trails became all unstable. But then came 2 days of hard freezes again.
(Also, the day before Stinch I skied tele up at Boyne with a friend. It was their WORST day of the year. Total ice with no chance to groom. What did that bode for Stinch?)
RadNord went out and scouted Stinch. He reported back that conditions were “perfect” and that the Loppet was a GO. …Icy, fast and 88% good pole-planting. Ski at your own risk. …As usual.
Everyone was aware what this meant. Having RadNord scout for safety means possible hospital visits after the all-clear. Mud and ice-lumps would be “Superior opportunity for ski-handling!” But Rad is the only one who *will* scout so trust we must… (“Really, we’ll go easy today.”)
Sunday morning cars start peeling into the parking lot across from Stinch. People glance fearfully to the forest. Will it be deadly razortooth blue ice? I go test the crust in the field: it’s not “on” yet. So the trail is the only option…
18 skiers and a fat-biker suit up for adventure and head into the Territory. The sun comes out. Blue skies. Several new faces in the crowd. A wide variety of ski types and skill levels. But everyone is easily adjusted for and able to be aided as needed. …As usual, not a SINGLE Nordic skier. All mt-bikers. (Yes, Nordic skiers mt-bike in summer. But they don’t singletrack in winter. Grooming only!)
The fat-biker said “I’m riding Island Lake today, but here’s a sixer for you guys afterward.” What? Why not ride with us? “I don’t want to bogart your ski experience. Bikes and skis don’t mix, ya know.” Huh? The trails are hardpack. It’s not about the skis. It’s about the experience and us. And you are us! C’mon! And so he did! …The Singletrack Ski League is colorblind. …As long as the trail is firm. (Alert: Stinch is Stinch. Birders are birders. Heads up.)
As we hit the icy trails the grip wasn’t too good. …For about 5 minutes. Then grip became perfect. Also the glide.
…And the line of skiers stretched out in joy for 2 hours.
Up and down the glorious hills of Stinch.
Rollercoaster was nearly all roller and coaster.
Conditions were, literally, perfect. Glide was effortless yet controllable. Grip was great. It was the magic carpet ride thru the forest as we strung out in a quarter-mile long line that accordianed. We would expertly leave or close gaps, depending on our relative ski speeds, whenever we hit the fast downhills.
I uploaded 3 little vids from our day. The 2nd shows the Rollercoaster experience. Here’s the 1st:
Only 1 downhill was truly sketchy. A few had “wrinkles” involving a fast icy woods-road and bank-skiing. But the road-ice actually had some “tack” to it.
Only 2 of us got bloody. One was the usual. Both could take it. One got it low, the other high. We almost had WWF-quality blood in the eyes!
We adjusted clothing and wax as needed along the way. People shared what they had. (“Anyone have klister?”) I lost a basket, then found it, then duct-taped it on, thanks to the tape that Jen had wrapped around her pole for just such an occasion. (I gotta do that!)
It was no-drop and we had a couple picnic-stops.
(I do wish that I had brought a fancier picnic. I’d like to figure out how to rig a picnic table so that snacks didn’t have to be put on the ground. I’d like to reveal a platter of taste treats at the halfway. That’s the goal! I’ve done it before, but only had brownies this time. Really, a ski outing needs a picnic stop with white-wine — little cups for sharing — crackers, stinky cheese, sausage, smoked fish, nuts, dates, chocolate, perhaps a puff from a pipe of Full English, possibly a sip of bracing Coke. …Next time! But how to rig the table? Something collapsible. Maybe a fold-out tray that sticks/screws into a tree trunk with a far leg that swings out at an angle and props against the trunk? I like the idea of a chair, too. But, ya know, what I usually do is just find a picnic stop with a big log along it and brush off the log then spread the snacks on that and sit on it, too! …KISS!)
The hugest uphill near the end was so good that we stopped at the top and people kept going up and down it!
As we approached it I hollered out “Things are about to get… pretty!” (You drop down a hill into a forested valley then suddenly see the biggest uphill thru the trees to your left. If a line of skiers are on it they appear to ascend up to the sky.)
We demonstrated the skidaddle scamper for flowing up gullies where the herringbone fails. We played with tele turns in the corners.
We figured out how to get good pole-plants on a trail where the only firm spot was the ski track. …Plant right at the ski. It’s a bit tricky but the pole doesn’t sink.
Afterward we had our Apres’ Ski party in the parking and cranked up the jams. (The Gourds and Foxygen.) Beers and brats were freely shared.
Gary showed off his freshly-welded, newly-innovated fatbike groomer. 30″ makes it just right for singletrack, too. Crowdfunding campaign to pay for it coming soon!
We were just about hitting our first party lull when the Magic Man whipped into the lot and out popped a steaming pot of venison steak chili and fresh-baked bread. Hooray! (How does he do it?)
That’s how we roll, SE MI BC Singletrack Style.
Winding down.
Three fisted?
Different boards for different strokes. (Rossi 125’s with nowax pattern: pretty sweet. But Alpina allround trail’n’turn-pounders are nice, too.)
The new fatbike groomer! …2 aerators, a packer and a tensioned tidier with a u-joint attachment.
3 times bloodied! …Crust bites!
Skidaddle skamper — making molehills of the big ones.
The steepest overall uphill, and nearly the longest, and my favorite, had a new feature halfway up.
Picnic at the top.
Red wax. A few opted for waxable but most went nowax.
A couple of the downhills had tricky exit-points. A couple involved totally iced-over roads.
One of the tricky downhills had an abrupt snowbank and corner drop onto an icy road. I just butt-dropped. Others solved the problem in more colorful ways.
Stringing it out, then regrouping after big uphills, over and over.
Gathering up before heading out.
