Beautiful conditions on the parkways this late afternoon. Skied from P5 to Mica, then up the Champlain parkway, about halfway up King Mountain. It seemed to have been groomed last night, with some fresh powder snow on top. Skate had a hard base, in places the skies would catch the underlying frozen cordroy. But the loose top made for a good ski. Classic tracks were iced up, so very fast downhills. Some people out, but not much traffic at all. There is a small detour off the parkway after MacKenzie King road, not sure why but it's definitely well marked. Off the Kingsmere bridge at P5 there's also some grit and a bit of dirt on the parkway. So I took it slow on the way back down to P5 to see exactly where my skies went.

Halfway up Black's, a coyote came out of the woods 20 m away, first came towards me and then decided to run away downhill. On my way back, the same coyote ran past me again up the hill, as another skier had been approaching from below. It seemed little scared of people, but coming down King Mountain in fast tracks with a coyote running towards me was certainly interesting. Luckily it just ran past me and neither of us got hurt.

Weather was nice and warm with -4, light snow falling, overcast. P5 was very little busy when I got there around 3:30 and even less so when I left at 5 pm. Definitely a beautiful day to be out!