Monday, January 21, 2013

Skiing Kolapore


Winter was back with a vengeance yesterday, with snow streamers off Lake Huron bringing snow squalls on and off all day, but the result was enough snow for cross-country skiing again.  So I joined a Bruce Trail ski in the Kolapore Forest.  One corner of the Country Forest area is being logged, so we walked up the road a short distance and headed in on a trail down this old farm lane.  Fresh powder snow on the surface, and on all the branches - it was great skiing.


The volunteers who maintain the trails here face lots of challenges, including beaver populations that come and go, flooding low-lying areas.  In turn, bridges need to be expanded, or boardwalks built - or in worse cases, trails closed.  Below is one of the beaver ponds we encountered, this one now abandoned.


Because the temperature was just above zero when the snow started 36 hours ago, it initially stuck to the trees, and that snow caught more, so the fresh powder snow this morning was plastered to the north side of all the trees and branches.  A few places were pretty well white, like below - all young maple saplings, filling in the corner of an old field.


And this is an old apple tree, now overgrown by surrounding forest, and dying, but today looking great with a fresh coat of white.

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