TR - Jericho Road, Rock Branch Trail NH

March, 2002

Spurred on by the forecast of 6" - 8" of new snow
and the desperate need to get out skiing one last time
before summer hits and being totally undettered by the
prospect of xc skiing in the rain, Bob and I headed
north from Boston to find some skiing on Wednesday.

Not knowing how much snow would be eaten up by the
rain at low levels, we got to the Lincoln Woods parking
lot just as they were plowing it out.  To our joy, they
had a good 8" - 10" of snow in the parking lot, even
at this relatively low elevation.   The rain had transformed
the snow into wet, loose corn and we knew that we would
have good coverage for any low elevation xc tour that
we wanted.

Bob and I have been hiking, skiing and climbing together in NH
for nearly 20 years now and our desire was just to be together
and to get into the woods.  We opted for a ski up the
unplowed Jericho Road (out of Bartlett) and up the
Rocky Branch Trail.  We've spent several easy camping
trips there and seemed like the appropriate destination
to putt along towards while we talked and caught up
on each other's lives.

After a brief stop at Limmers in North Conway to buy
some boot grease, we hit the trail around 10.
After a couple of false starts with the wax, I finally
settled on a thick layer of Universal Klister applied
nearly full length. Snow temp was around -3C and the
snow was unpacked granular and very wet.

Breaking trail was very slow going, especially for
2 slowing-down 40 year olds.  Lunch number 1 took
place at the bridges (Braunsweiger, hunter's cheese,
rye bagels and fresh strawberries). Lunch number 2
took place the Rocky Branch shelter at about 3:00
in the afternoon.

The elevation gain was a modest 550 feet but it was
just enough when combined with broken out tracks
and good wax.  The run back to the car was blissful
easy kick and glide and double poling.  We were back at
the car by 5:00.


[geeky equipment note :  The Mountain Highs
were a joy.  Bob's E99s definitely have a softer nose
and were a bit easier to break trail with in the uncut
snow.  The stiffer tips of the Mountain Highs made them
a bit more likely to wander.  But, they were noticably
faster once the tracks were busted out (could have been
the klister though - Bob was running gloppy thick Red Wax).

I was timid about applying the klister at first and started 
only in the kick zone and thin.  I had *no* grip what so ever.  
Finally a thick and nearly full length application gave great 
grip while still staying fast.  Luckily I had no powder in the 
shade to worry about icing up the klister, so it worked well.
The lesson learned is that with soft, unpacked snow under
foot, the klister may need to be long and thick to
work.  ]


Copyright 2003 by David Mann