Afternoon Ski at Pinelands

Snowman had to head up to work today, so I was left to my own devices. I had a productive morning doing things around the house and around town, and around 2pm found myself wondering what I should do with the rest of the afternoon. I was highly tempted to curl up in the sun with Ronnie the cat and take a nap, or to sit on the couch with a book and relax. Both of those options sounded pretty good, actually. But yesterday, after our run at Bradley Palmer, in a fit of exercise-induced happiness, I had mentioned to Snowman that I thought I might ski at Pineland Farms today. It was a good idea, really, but as it was getting late, I pondered whether that was really what I should do. I could go for a short run. Or be lazy, as mentioned above. Or get off my a** and go ski. I mean, how often will I have the chance to ski at Pineland in late March? OK, OK, I convinced myself, ran upstairs to throw my ski clothes on, grabbed my waxless skis, and hit the road. I was skiing by 3:06pm. Nice.

They had groomed last night, which was great, and set tracks, which was even better. But as it was late March, and late in the day with the temps in the high 30s, the snow was pretty variable. In a few spots, it was ice. In others the sun had done some interesting things to the tracks, melting the snow down so that a ridge of crispy ice-like snow remained above the mushy snow. In the shade on the Oak Hill loop things were pretty solid. But regardless, it was remarkably good skiing, especially for this time of year. In the fields, there were a few thin spots, and of course the requisite dirty snow, but in the woods, there is still a lot of snow. I don't know that it's going anywhere for a while. I was out for 55 minutes, enjoying the rolling terrain in the Oak Hill area as well as doing a few loops in the fields. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and I enjoyed a great late spring skiing day of skiing :-) As always, the hardest part is getting off the couch, and I'm glad I did!