Up the trail, finally

Journal entry, January 21, 2008, 34 degrees

Christine and i drive up to the trailhead and start packing the gear into the sled. Who should pull up but Todd Shorey, what a guy! i used to live with Todd for 3 years, my bed was his couch and my closet was a spare bath tub he had in the living room... The sleds loaded, skis are on, i give it a pull, nothing. Again, doesn't move an inch. i pull with all my might, uh oh. i need my snowshoes... i pull out my wax scraper that i use for my skis and take off a layer of ice that formed when i put the warm plastic sled on the relatively warm snow. As soon as the ice layer was off it pulled like a dream, whew...

...it seemed like the Park was ours. Up we traveled and the further we got, the harder it was. Truth be told i thought i was in good shape, a little round, but i had planned that... My guess is that i had about 150 pounds in the sled and another 50 or so in my backpack...

By mile 9 it started getting windy. By mile 10 it was blowing hard but luckily it was at our backs. It still stung though and was whipping through us. Eventually we found a large culvert under the road and we dropped our packs and sled and sought some refuge there for a short break...

Finally the snow patches were gone and the ice on the pavement nonexistent. I could barely pull the sled on my own so Christine helped and that was the only way we could move it forward. Even with the two of us pulling we had a hard time...

That night the wind blew so hard that it kicked the front open and the outside shutters broke free smashed the window frame so hard it was fortunate the glass didn't break. i went outside in the middle of the night and latched everything in tight, immediately blackening the inside of the cabin. Too bad because the moon was full and filled the cloudless night sky...