We finally got a couple of snowfalls – enough to provide a base for our XC ski trails.  Skip and I managed to snowshoe to the top of Kirkland’s field (1 hour up and 30 minutes down trail) , followed by another day completing half the lollipop loop.  On 26 December the dogs and I completed the loop by going counter clockwise past “Appliance Alley” to the teepee / halfway mark on the loop.  Despite warming temperatures and rain the trail mostly held together; enough for Skip, Beth, Kathryn and I to snowshoe the whole circuit on Wednesday.  On Thursday and Friday we received 21 ” of snow.

New Year’s Day Kathryn and I began to re-establish the filled in trail.  For the most part I was able to discern where our previous trail was, but it was faint and it felt like breaking trail all over again.  It took us about an hour to get just inside the woods to the intersection of the trail to Appliance Alley.  From there Kathryn skied back to the house.  It took me 30 minutes to snowshoe back down the hill on the broken trail. We will probably to extend the loop in the coming week similar to the way we did last week.  Hopefully the rain in the forecast won’t be too hard.