There has been a long standing “thing” with me and whitewater rafting. I’ve been avoiding the Hudson River Gorge for nearly two decades with a variety of different excuses.
But over the last four years, as my involvement with SquareEddy has grown, my river avoidance was starting to stick out in a very obvious way.
Lori Phoebe and Linc, friends, rafting company owners and guides, have pushed me to take a river trip, but it took insistence from my daughter Neve to make it happen.
It makes sense that a warm and underperforming winter would be followed by a cold and wet spring. I’ve been burying myself in work and household projects, but Killington just would not go away.
Each time I peeked at social media or the Killington conditions thread, Superstar seemed deep and very top-to-bottomish. On top of it all I’d only used a week of vacation all winter.
I took off early Friday, and arrived in the early afternoon. Darkside Shaman loaned me his most awesome Stihl leaf blower and I dusted up the trails. Just as I was finishing cleaning up, the Son of Pitches showed up and afternoon MTB was on.
Every spring when the season is over, I head to the cabin to turn off the heat, stack the wood for next winter and get the trails in shape for summer. I’m productive enough, but really it’s just another reason to return to my favorite place in the world.
Traditionally the spring work weekend was in early May, before the black flies had their game on. But over the last ten years the bugs are emerging earlier and we’ve moved spring weekend into April. Even this year it hardly feels like the ski season is over.
I arrived Friday afternoon and took a quick walk of the yellow trail. It was dry and I was surprised to find little deadfall; small consolation for the thinnest winter in memory.
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