In Search of Buck Prairie on XC Skis
February 11, 2006: This was the day I went in search of Buck Prairie on cross country skis. Gwen is in Grants Pass with the Grandkids. Remember our adventure to find Buck Prairie last April? This was just like that. Even though I had my GPS, we still took the wrong trail and had to do some thrashing through the woods to find the Prairie. It has been at least 7 years since the last time I was on crosscountry skis but when I lived at |
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Lake Tahoe, I would nordic ski nearly every day at the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area. When I skied there, it was called the Tahoe Nordic Ski Center. I would drop my son off at high school then drive around the corner to the nordic center for an hour+ of great exercise. At the nordic center, I learned to nordic-skate. Once I learned skating, I did not return to striding. |
Unfortunately, when you are skiing the back country, like we did today, no one is grooming the trails for you. So only striding is possible.
We made it to Buck Prairie, above is the remote home and out-house which we discovered last April.
We were surprised that we were the first skiers in more than a week to visit Buck Prairie but it was nice to be the first tracks in the meadow. This was a good spot of lunch before the long ski back to the car. Someone has removed the barbed wire for the fence poles. That sounds like lots of work but it certainly makes it safer for winter sports enthusiasts. You can imagine what might happen if a skier or snow mobile caught an invisable fence wire hidden by a few inches of snow. So how did I feel at the end of this long day of skiing. I could hardly walk and really struggled to change back to street shoes. |
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