With the recent DEC clearing and marking of the Raymond Brook Trail, it is finally time to tell the story of The Secret Ski.
It’s no coincidence that I posted precise ski data for North Creek just recently. No longer a secret, the route is just another part of the history of Gore Mountain.
I started skiing at Garnet Hill in 1989. Before I came to the Hill, I thought cross country skiing was something that you did in the flats. I had no idea that you could go up hill, down hill or link turns.
Inspired by the conditions I found in the Siamese yesterday, and deterred by the holiday going on at Gore, I decided to “sleep in” and see what I could dig up in the woods for a second day in a row. I got up at 7am and by 7:45 was walking down Harvey Road with my BC skis on my shoulder. I jumped onto Garnet Hill’s trail system, and took Old Faithful to 4H towards the Garnet Hill ski shop.
I was the first one on the trails, after the groomer, so I guess you could call it first tracks. The trails were in good shape. While skiing 4H, Mark and Julie, a couple of tele instructors from the area, popped out of a chute known as the “elevator shaft.”
I didn’t plan a solo trip. It was early March in 1998. There had been a lot of snow that season but in the last 10 days a front had come through. Rain had fallen before the frontal passage and brutal cold had followed. All that snow was locked in, beneath an tough crusty layer.
My regular ski partner and I had been watching the weather, hoping for some new snow, so we could get back into the woods. The plan was for a two or three night overnight in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. Made to order, early in the week, a low came across the southern tier of the US, turned north off the coast and headed towards nor’easter land. The call was for a lot of snow, starting to fall Friday morning.
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