More Photos Below!Gallery
Wow, 30 skiers showed up for the first proper Stinchfield Rally. Or Loppet. It was a dreary day, but what colorful fun we had out there on the hilly trails.
We hammered the sections then regrouped. Nobody got dropped.
There was some various diversity and route selection and mystery ensuing, but it all worked out. If you haven’t skied everything at Stinchfield 3 times this year, you WILL get lost if you try to get creative. Thankfully, it’s a good lost. Skiing Stinch with someone who’s been there a few times is a must for your first few times out.
We skied for 2 hours and had three picnics out there, in addition, at intersections.
(One stop was misplaced: the Big Valley Overlook stop happened a 1/4 mile too soon in the shrubbery and so was skipped over, but there’s always next year, we hope. That’s the most scenic view of the place, I think. But it’s hard to navigate on singletrack when you’re 15 people back!)
Jessop brought some homemade chimichangas — oh yeah.
And RadNord ran up then jump-turned down the big Tele-Central hill then ran back up. It was neat seeing him jump-turn down between the herringboners. It all worked out.
Jason brought a growler plus some New Belgiums for the parking lot apres’ party. …Which lasted about as long as the skiing did.
No fees, no grooming. Good fun.
The snow coulda been bad. It coulda fell apart. But it didn’t. Overcast, threatening drizzle, rain coming tonight, 40F. Yet we had good glide and control and everything! Stinch showed itself off fine for us all. Floundering waxable folks were rescued by others who had brought softer wax. It all was good.
Wendy’s cool Poto SSWC patches. (Alien behind.)
The big hill at Tele Central. JR storming back up after his jump-turns.
Cruising along the pines.
Picnic at the intersection.
The long line of 30 streaming up Big Maple Valley, a glorious 10 minute climb.
