GMC’s Bolton Valley camps usually close at the end of March, but since there was so much snowpack this year, they stayed open until April 15th instead.  I grabbed one night at Bolton Lodge for a last wintry adventure.  Since it’s so close to home for me, and there’s so much daylight now, it’s easy to head out there on a Friday after work and still arrive way before dark.

Jeremiah and I arrived at the parking closest to the cabin and were ready to snowshoe up the old road from there, but since there is private property halfway up, the road had been plowed and melted out that far, and I carried my snowshoes instead.  Even when it turned back to snow, it was packed down enough from grooming that I didn’t need any added traction.

We arrived in good time, got the wood stove going and the firewood stocked inside, then cooked dinner, all before dark.

Switchfoot and Marie arrived later, having somehow skied up the same road we’d come up.  We had a great night catching up, then a very warm overnight as the low was still above freezing.

After a slow morning, we hiked and skied back down to the car to drop our stuff off, and then drove up to the Nordic center to start skiing.

I was afraid the snow would be sticky in the warmth so I was ready to pack it in, but I’m glad we went for one last ski of the season.  We started out with the blue Picnic/Valley Loop right near the Center, then moved down Broadway to explore some new-to-me trails there.

We followed Middle and Lower Maple Loops until almost back to Broadway, then Switchfoot convinced us to head off groomed trails onto Deer Run.  I was worried the trail would be too steep to be comfortable for me since it’s also narrow, but it wasn’t bad at all.  There were lots of water crossings since the snow bridges had mostly all melted but we took our time and were able to get across.

Photo by Switchfoot

After going up Deer Run a bit, we turned to go back down Beaver Pond and ended back on Broadway right by Bolton Lodge.  These are black diamond trails on the map, but they really weren’t steep at all on the segments we were on.  From there, we headed back up Broadway to the Nordic center, and then back to town for a late lunch.  We probably skied 5-6 miles total.