Now that we have enough snow and continuing cold temperatures to maintain the snow, Kathryn and I have been breaking trail in an attempt to re-establish our Lollipop Loop Trail. The snow has been deep enough that we have only been able to do sections at a time. Initially, from our house to cookout corner, then to the top of Kirkland’s field, then to the woods and finally 1/3rd of the way around the clockface.

We have received some sizeable snow falls that threatened to obscure our previously made trails. And with the temperatures staying cold we have maintained our snowshoe / XC ski trails with little snow loss. We have about 2+ feet of snow laying on the ground. The deeper snow is nice as it keeps Tripp from running around chasing animal tracks. After a few strides into the deep stuff he usually decides the trail is a better option. Cullen usually tracks last.

We made a new loop, Gary’s Loop, to give us an alternative to our 1 mile dog ‘walk’ and worked to keep a good trail on the Lollipop Loop. Saturday Kathryn and I snow-shoed ~3 miles of the ‘handle’ and left side of the loop (6 -12 clockwise on a clock face). Sunday we completed the clock face (counter clockwise) to finish off the trail. It was a great day for a long snowshoe through the woods.; although Kathryn swapped for her skis for a glide back home.

Kathryn and I got the second Pfizer shot today.  So far, no side effects to mention, knock on wood.  In fact, it doesn’t even hurt as much as it did with the first one.    I hope tonight goes well.  They told us NOT to take ANYTHING (no Tylenol, no aspirin, no nothing) unless you “can’t bear it” and “simply can’t stand it.”  They said that several times, and told us both the same thing.  We don’t want anything to interfere with your immune system response, they said.  We want your immune system to go full bore and do it’s job, they said. 

Eric has been working part time at Olney’s Flowers to help with the Valentine’s Day rush. Eric had his first “slip and slide” on his way to work.  It was precipitating very lightly – freezing rain.  He didn’t make the corner by Edwards Road and got into the icy snowbank but missed the signs.  We pulled him out with the truck.  He said “I braked too late.  Now I realize you need to slow down BEFORE you get into the curve.” I told him “Slow the F###down!” but otherwise no yelling.  Lesson learned, we hope.  Minor damage to the front fender, which popped out a little bit.  Major learning experience, we hope. 

Eric is working again this week T/Th/Fr/Su so I guess they are keeping him on for now – even though he was late to work today! (only 30 minutes, and he said he got teased good for the accident).  He said they were pretty busy today.  Last minute shoppers, I guess. We packed a trail from cookout corner across Gary’s hay field, up through the lane connecting to the “Deer Stand Field”, through the pine woods and connecting with our previous trail to the top of Kirkland’s field. The snow was heavy wet and deep but packed down to make a decent XC trail.

Kathryn and I (with an occasional assist by Skip), have worked on what we call our ‘Lollipop Trail’.  This is a ~3.5 mile XC ski and snowshoe trail through the woods across the road.  We started expanding by snowshoes back in mid-January and got it flagged and pretty packed down. Almost to the point where Kathryn said it was a little too slick and fast coming down the hill.

I decided to create a new branch to the trail through my neighbors hay field, up a long wooded lane and crossing a final hayfield to rejoin Lollipop at the point where the candy sucker portion meets the stick.  So I strapped on my gaiters and 10×30 snowshoes and headed out.

The snow was deep.  Too deep.  It was one of those – take 10 steps, pause to reflect why one is doing this, and then take another 10 steps.  I got 2/3ths of the trail done.  What I needed were your super flotation, doubles as bush plane pontoons, super long snow shoes like Matt has.  It was perfect conditions for them.

Going back was easy.  Hopefully, I can complete the trail in the next day or two despite the 6″ of fresh snow we got in the past 24 hours.

On Wednesday I managed to snowshoe around the whole loop – 2 hours a 10 minutes and an accomplishment for me that I probably couldn’t have done a week earlier. Reducing the beta blockers has been beneficial.

But as soon as we get a nice trail, Mother Nature brings us a Thursday full of rain and 10+ inches of new snow on Friday. So we were back in the mode of re-establishing our trails. Sunday Kathryn and I broke trail to the top of the hill and partially around the loop. A gorgeous day with blue skies and sunlight making the icy trees sparkle.