Started at Kingsmere and went out Trail #8 (Highland). I wore my rock skis and if I hadn’t I would have been weeping, there was plenty of granite under the fluffy new snow and it regularly grabbed my skis and threw me off balance, once to the point of a tumble with my skis entangled in the nearby trees. There were a notably large number of snowshoe tracks on the ski trail, though with the current snow they didn’t feel terribly damaging to ski control or grip. Several places where open water was evident and these were sometimes approached at speed in the midst of a slope so that bracing yourself, flying through and hoping for the best was the only thing to do short of sitting down (hopefully not on a hidden rock). I didn’t sit and lucky for me i always seemed to fly through and my hope for the best was justified. I continued toward Keogan along trail #17 (Frank’s) which had seen more traffic and appeared less rock strewn. I returned along Ridge Road (trail #1) then back over the tail end of #8 to #17 and returned to Kingsmere that way. There were more rocks on this portion of #17
I was struck by the number of trees that partially obstructed the trails and looked as if they had been that way for some time. I wondered that the NCC had put these trails on such a low priority for maintenance. (a thin one easily ducked under just after joining #8 near Kingsmere; a broken stump and log across the trail, easily stepped over on trail #17 just west of where it crosses #11; and a large pine easily ducked under at the peak of #17 east of where if crosses #8.
In a few spots along Ridge Road I noted how the crowning of the trail, with side trenches, had made grooming with low snow levels difficult and resulted in soft sides where skiers tracks showed that they’d sunk through the uncompacted fluff even though on the surface the snow appeared to have been groomed. On some of the steep descents from Ridge down to Kingsmere the shallow snow had been almost completely swept away and the underlying ice was clearly evident.