This was to be a hasty, short ski, as I couldn't ski until late afternoon. However conditions were so delightful that I stayed out for several hours, playing with the camera, and returning only as the sun dipped below the trees. It was t-shirt and visor weather, at 15 degrees, and my warm-weather fish scales had perfect grip and glide in the soft snow. The cleaner tracks on one side of the parkway made for quite good skiing, with very little ice and no bare spots. The amount of snow remaining on the parkways is quite amazing for April 13! Measured with a ski pole beside the groomed tracks, it showed that the trails still have about a foot of packed snow! In the open area across from P8 the snow is going fast, and is creating shallow lakes, but once past the pond the snow prevailed. Between P8 and Mica the swamps were thawing in the sun, and there were numerous beavers and mergansers, but only one other skier.

I should have returned home for supper after returning to P8, but was curious to see the state of the north loop. My skis were moving so well, the classic tracks were nice and clean on the "wrong" side of the parkway, and the light was so lovely, that I could not turn back. Today's ski turned out to be one of the nicest of the year, and to top it all off Garry had dinner waiting for me when I finally made it home.

One interesting thing: when I returned to the car, it appeared that a grooming machine had crossed the parkway, heading towards Mica. That seemed rather odd, as the snow was still so wet, and temperatures are expected to go below zero tonight.