Monday, February 1, 2016

Sauble Ski Trails

On Saturday three of us headed up to Sauble Beach, to the Sauble Cross Country Ski Club trails, which run through forested dunes behind the beach near Sauble Falls Provincial Park.  The conditions the day before were poor, after another warm day, but overnight the temperature had dropped and there had been a fresh 2" of snow - we lucked out!

This club even has a little warming hut where volunteers serve warm cider on weekends.  Quite the operation!  And it has excellent trail maps.

We pondered the trail map for some time before deciding what loop to try, and ended up on a longer loop in to the Rankin River.  The trail sort of bounces up and down over the old dunes all the way.

The forest here is mostly hardwoods overhead, but a lot of young Hemlock in the understory, which hold the fresh snow beautifully.  And for the first hour or so, the sun was shining most of the time.  Couldn't have been better!

My two ski buddies are both faster than me, and disappear around the bends in front of me fast, so I don't get many pictures of them, and if I do, it's usually their backs, disappearing down the trail.  But they're very good about waiting for me, so it works out fine.

It was simply a beautiful day for skiing.  You don't get many days like this in our winter, with the right temperature, the right snow conditions, plus sunshine, so you just gotta get out there when you get the chance.

Eventually we came out to the Rankin River, where we could look over the water and see some wonderful reflections.

And then the long trail back.  We skiid about 2 hours altogether, but because we took breaks, I was feeling fine by the end.

One nice thing is the separate snowshoe and ski trails, so snowshoeing is quite popular here too, but the two groups of trails don't interfere with each other.  They even have an outhouse!

Won't be many days like this, so we're very glad we went.  It warmed up the next day, and snow started to melt; yesterday it was well above freezing and raining.  All those beautiful xc ski conditions are gone until we have another good snowfall.

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Several people commented on the word 'concession' to describe a rural road in yesterday's post.   I guess I didn't realize it wasn't a widely used word.  Here, surveyors marked out roads in a fairly standard grid pattern after treaties had been negotiated, and southern Ontario was opened for white settlement.  Blocks of land bounded by roads usually had 10 or 12 hundred acre farm parcels within them.  These roads were usually numbered, so here the north/south roads are called 'Lines', as in 7th Line, 9th Line, and so on.  And the east/west roads are called Sideroads or Concessions, as in the 4th Concession, the 7th Concession, etc.  So it's just a word for a rural road, usually here it's a lesser used road that is still gravelled.  Over time the main roads end up  paved.

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24 comments:

  1. Such a lovely winter you are having.

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  2. Gorgeous scenery and the end to a perfect ski trip for you. I would love to do that just once. Beautiful photos. Carol

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  3. Oh yeah! Perfect bluebird ski day. :)

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  4. What a day to be out there, we are sweltering in about 30C right now. Please tell Mrs. F.G. that it is too hot to sew or quilt!!! And ditto tobLinda, that is what our daughter calls, as well, " A true Bluebird Day".

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  5. Looked like a perfect day to go cross country skiing. Beautiful scenery!

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  6. What a glorious day in superb scenery. The shot of the Rankin River is especially stunning.

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  7. There's nothing like the outdoors and freshly fallen snow ... you've captured some nice scenes here FG.

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  8. Delightful snow scenes. I like the shot of the river....beautiful reflections!

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  10. Hello, beautiful scenery from your outing. The fresh snow and river scene are gorgeous. The skiing does sounds like fun! Happy Tuesday, enjoy your day!

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  11. Absolutely awesome pictures... I'd be stopping constantly to take pictures... Beautiful... WOW!!!!!! (The reason that George and I don't join groups who enjoy hiking is that most of them just want to go and go and go --as fast as possible. George and I love to stop and take in nature all of the way.. SO--we travel alone together! ha)

    Interesting way of marking roads up there. I had never heard that...

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  12. WoW...what beautiful views...nobody does it better than mother nature!! it is nice when paths are dedicated, we have that here with hiking/walking and where bikes are allowed!!!

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  13. Lovely photos ! WOW ! lots of snow there we have none left now what with the warm temps and sun shine we have had also lots of rain for us this evening over night and all day tomorrow ! We are green and brown again lol and the land is thawing here puddles galore . Thanks for sharing , Have a good day !

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  14. Good idea to separate the snowshoes from the ski trails. We enjoyed snowshoes as we did not have groomed trails near our New Mexico home. Now living in Florida that is one thing I really miss--- but not the cold and "hibernation" during the winter, or the closing of the mountain passes that kept us from getting into the city.

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  15. Gorgeous! There is no snow here just grey landscape.

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  16. Wow what a beautiful winter wonderland.

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  17. Your photos are awesome. They always are. You live in paradise. I know that most wouldn't see it that way, but I see paradise as a place where one has access to such beautiful place that remain untouched by development. It looks like you had a wonderful day of fun, friendship, and fitness.

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  18. HI Furry....
    Love the reflections in the lake...
    Beautiful snow pictures...nothing here!
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

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  19. Wonderful snowy photos the reflection in the lake is beautiful! :)

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  20. Thanks for the map of the ski trails. I wish I were there with you. Being behind the others means they break trail for you, not a bad thing. :-)

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  21. I so wish it would snow here but I think we are going to have white free winter

    mollyxxx

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  22. Your dedicated activity puts me to shame.. Just getting back online for brief bits as I recoup from knee replacement. I did find the concession road a bit of an interesting word for what we call county roads in this area. While visiting last summer we noticed the term 'collector road'

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