The Spruce River Highlands loop is an "advanced" xcountry ski trail. This means it has lots of ups and downs, and in this case, is not tracked by machine (too steep?). Therefore, the only tracks are made by skiers: these tend to be less consistent and more surprising. Frequently we are the first skiers on the trail after a new snow, which makes things even more exciting.

This loop takes a lot longer than its 9 km suggests. In our case about 3 hours, mostly because we all turn around and watch the next victim descending a particularly difficult hill.

1996

Our first time around this loop was in 1996, when Elaine, Rick, Sandy and Warren (anyone else on this trip?). No one was really sure just how long it would take us, it was late in the day when we started, it was -25 degrees and windy and snowing. We were also the first ones to track through the 8" or so of powder.

The trail starts out with a series of steep climbs up to the top of a glacial ridge. The deep snow made herring-boning up the hills much tougher. But it did get us warm!

Rick, Warren and Elaine doing the herringbone.(1997)

It also made the runs down the hills exciting. There is nothing like not knowing what is under your skiis. The ground tended to drop away dramatically when you least expected it. All of a sudden, you would be in 2 feet of powder, or worse yet, one ski would be in 2 feet of powder and the other would be in 2 inches. We had a lots of wipeouts, full blown, tumbling crashes into powder so soft you never felt like you hit anything, just sort of slowly came to a halt.

The deep snow also made us a little unsure of exactly where we were. For the most part, the trail is obvious, and only forks occasionally. But given the deep snow, many false "trails' led off into the woods, with no indication which was the real one. The infrequent (and insignificant) markers on the trail did little to give us confidence. We had originally figured that we would be around this loop in an hour and a half, which would just barely get us out in daylight. In late December, the sun sets early, around 4:30 pm. Elaine, the only one of us who had done the loop before, confidently ploughed on thru the snow ahead.

After an hour or so, we came to the 2 (?) kilometer marker. This did not bode well for getting out in the daylight... This also did not raise anyone's spirits. Here we were, almost getting lost in the daylight, and it would be dark in an hour... very dark. We continued on. More howls of laughter as body after body disappeared into the drifts. Everything was still tinged with a little worry however. We were lucky to all be dressed correctly for the weather. No one was getting too cold, and most of us had our jackets partially open because we were generating plenty of heat. We were most definately not dressed for a night out however.

Another hour later we came to the 4 kilometer mark. Now we had to be cautious because we knew that the trail forked somewhere around this point, and we did NOT want to take the wrong branch. That would lead us off onto the Anglin lake trails, which could add another 10 to 15 kilometers to our trek before we noticed! But, we soon, found, and recognized the fork in the trail.

But it was now 5 pm and dark. We had also entered the dark portion of the loop. Now we were down in the valley, frequently under thick spruce trees. We blundered on. Another hour or so passed as we felt our way through the trees. Life would have been much easier had there been ski tracks to follow.

Eventually, we popped out of the woods, and climbed back up to the ridge, where we ran into our own tracks at the fork which marked the beginning of the loop. Only 1 kilometer left, and most of that downhill (remember the long climb way back at the start?). Should have been easy. It wasn't. We now had tracks to follow, but down the steep slopes where we really could have used them in the dark, there was nothing other than our herring-bones going up. And it was dark, quite dark. At least the snow was soft.

We made it. Took us something like three and a half to four hours. But, this is what make memories. Most of us remember Rick, his red jacket open and flapping in the breeze... and then the same image, only covered in snow after a wipeout.

1997

On February 16, 1997, Warren, Sandy, Rick and Elaine figured we would do the lagain. For some obscure reason, we figured that last time, it had been too easy, so we added on another 5 kilometers, by continuing on to the Anglin Lake trails and then down onto Anglin Lake.

On Anglin Lake, halfway point, still feeling perky!

2000 January 1

To start off the millennium (well, one of them anyways), we thought a quick loop around the Spruce River Highlands was in order. The victims were Aaron (on snowshoes), Bill,Chris, Elaine, Joan and me, Warren. Also along for the Sasha, Sky and ZinZan, who formed our "wolf-pack". And once again, we were late getting started. Three pm is really too late to start this loop in winter.

The weather did its bit to make things more memorable. It had snowed all night, and continued to do so throughout the day. This is the 2 line highway into Waskesui. We were one of the first vehicles to pass though since the snow fell. Four-wheel drive is nice.

The drive in, thru 8" of snow, in a snowstorm.

The "Before" picture

We glided through the deep snow. Well, actually Aaron stomped, but silently. The snow flakes floating down around us. All was silent. Our wolf-pack would charge off to the front of our group, impede everyones progress, then take of to the rear, then hang around the middle of the group. Joan blames most of her skiing accidents on trying to avoid the dogs. Usually the leader of the group had it easiest, as the dogs would follow him down the hill. But once he stopped to wait for the rest of the group, the dogs would place themselves in the middle of the trail and wait for the rest of the group. Sometimes they would move out of the way as a skier whooshed down a hill, but sometimes they wouldn't.

Aaron stomping down a hill. Even with snowshoes, he sinks deep into the snow.

Joan, with Chris starting to lose it behind her!

Eventually, Joan lost her patience trying to herringbone up the hills, and avoid the dogs. So, she went to Plan B. She took her skis off, and walked up the hills. Plan B worked for awhile, then the snow eventually built up inside her bindings. Now she couldn't get her skis to stay on. Bill came to her rescue, and cleaned out the bindings, but her skis never stayed as firmly attached to her feet as she would have liked.

Every now and then, Aaron would get tired of waiting for the rabble to make it up some hill, and he would take off into the woods with Sky.

Sky in the fluffy snow

By this point, Joan is already doubting her ability to finish. But, once you are out there you don't have a whole lot of choice. Unfortunately, we are only one third the way around the loop here.

Joan, followed by Chris and Aaron

As always, night started to fall when we were only halfway round. We did find a wonderful arch that begged for a photo.

A natural photo frame: Warren, Elaine, Joan and Chris

Once again, we felt our way through the dark, hoping that we would lose Joan. But she held up, and we made it back to the trucks. At least, I think she did... she isn't in the final group picture which Warren took. She is probably collapsed in the parking lot somewhere.

Sandy, Bill, Elaine, Aaron, Chris (Warren and Joan missing from photo)

2000 December 31 (last day of the millennium?)

This time we had Chris, Elaine, Rick, Sandy and Warren. Just two dogs, Sasha and ZinZan. We had resolved, just like all the other times to start a little earlier this time. The difference was that we actually did start earlier and we were on the trail by 2:00 pm. A quick ski would get us around before dark, which would finally give us a chance to see where we were going on the last set of downhill runs. We were also blessed with unusually warm weather, around -8 or so. A record for us.

We charged up the first set of uphill climbs.

Elaine on the climb up

Rick had chosen to this trip to dress up as "Where's Waldo"...

Sandy and Warren then waited around at the top for over ten minutes waiting for the rest to catch up. It turned out they were "checking out" their alcohol supplies before the uphill climb. We cruised over to the fork, and then waited to watch the group descend the first hill. Rick went first, and set up the video camera. A few wipeouts on the way down, but nothing dramatic. The camera captured everything in gory detail anyways. Rick has passed on a few shots from the video for inclusion in this page.

As we came down a long slope and into the first wide open bowl, Sandy discovered that the snow was deeper, and obscurred the whereabouts of the trail. She crashed into the fluff and tall grass. Warren then cruised past her, stopped and prepared the camera for the event. Each additional body made it a little less likely for subsequent skiers to make it down: you have to step out of the tracks to make it past the body, which puts you off the beaten path and into unknown territory. In short, an ideal photo opportunity! (Click on any photo with a border for a bigger, better view. These ones are worth it!)

Sandy stands up and brushes her self off, while Chris prepares to crash

Chris faceplants.

Chris gets up, Rick crashes

Elaine faceplants (blamed the dogs!), Sasha looked on, unconcerned

Drinks all round to celebrate. Rick was most distressed to find the Keiran's sippy-cup (a sealed, suck-on-demand cup for babies) actually leaked when shaken violently and fallen upon. Rick was mostly concerned about the loss of wine and it probably wasn't doing the video camera any good either. He and Elaine relocated it to a different pocket. We set off across the bowl and cruised up the slope.

Well, most of us. The dogs seemed to interfere with Sandy's herringbone... not so much as interfered as made it impossible. After much coaxing, we got the dogs to interfere with other people's herringbones and the world returned to its normal intenseness. We always feel like we are up against a deadline skiing this trail... Maybe we are getting tired of finishing in the dark. It had also been a few years since Sandy had skied it. Each time we do this trail it gets easier and seems shorter and shorter, but Sandy was lacking this acclimatization.

We were now out of the tall aspens, and up onto the glacial morraine. The wind picked up, the sun came out and all was beautiful. They are several long slow descents along the side of the morraine which makes for easy gliding.

The ups and downs at this point are short violent dips that go steeply down and then back up. Some also have a sharp turn halfway down. One of the short violent dips turns back up so steeply that you actually have to suddenly lean back as you come through the botton, so as not to face plant into the uphill slope. At least, that is how Warren remembered it. This time, however, the dip mustn't have been as sharp, as several of us almost fell over backwards going up the slope on the other side. Lots of excited arm waving!

Rick, Elaine, Sandy and Chris psyching up for the dip.

We continued along the ridge, and then stopped under some trees for refreshments. Rick pulled his video camera out of his pants. He had started using the front of his pants as a storage compartment for it. There is no accounting for taste. Elaine opened her fancy thermos to share orange juice with the group, only to discover that it had leaked. The remnants were drunk anyways. After a few photos we resumed skiing.

Sandy stopping for refreshments in the sun

The view from the ridge out over Anglin Lake

Both dogs had been doing well, but we noticed that Sasha was starting to limp a bit. Warren guessed that the warmer weather was causing some ice build up, and while waiting for the others, sat down with Sasha and started pulling out the chunks of ice from her paws. ZinZan also took the opportunity to gnaw some ice out of his paws. Chris continued extracting ice from Sasha's paws for the rest of the trip.

Elaine and ZinZan on the ridge. Those are snowshoe tracks going the other way.

We knew we were approaching the turn around point, where the trail disappears down into the valley and changes character once again.

Down into the gloom. And easier skiing. At this point, we were done with the significant hill climbing, and could glide through the silent woods. The forest down here is different too. As you could sort of expect from the name of the trail, we were now in a spruce forest. It feels different from the aspen forest we started out in: much darker and enclosing. Frequently your skiis scrape over the roots of a tree, where the boughs have greatly decreased the snow depth under the trees.

Still some hills in the gloom... getting darker too.

In record time, we popped out the other side, and back up into the aspen forest and daylight as we arrive at the fork which marks the end of the loop for us. Now we retraced our steps, up a last climb, and zoomed down the slope back to our vehicle. The whole thing seemed much shorter in daylight!

Rick, Sandy,Chris,Warren and Elaine. Pretty dark at 4:45 pm.

Looking at the final group photo, I don't know how we really considered it to still be daylight. But compared to our typical Spruce River Highlands loop, it was.

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