Trips with Rog

Roger Lowell is a good friend of my folks and the father to one of my closest childhood friends. He had a big impact on my cross-country skiing as a kid, and even encouraged me to race BKL as a young child as his daughter, Erica, was racing and really enjoying it. I didn't take him up on the racing at that point, but did enjoy many adventures with him on XC gear as a kid.

Rog isn't about the latest gear, the greatest groom, the perfect form, or who's leading the World Cup. Instead Rog is about the pure joy of exploring and gliding on skis. This past week I went on two very different adventures, one was a circumvention of the Pleasant Mountain ridge, and the other was supposed to be another mountain climb under the full moon, but we couldn't find the trail head so it turned into an exploration of a oil pipeline.

Both were fun. Both were memorable. Both were trips I never would have done without someone like Rog saying, "hey let's do this".

I have a write up on the Pleasant Mountain trip that I am working on, but it's not quite done yet. The pipeline trip went like this, Rog called and said he had an idea and gave me a run down on who was going. I talked K into going and then I packed. When I say I packed, I mean I packed. A trip with Rog can often mean an adventure that runs WAY over the allotted time. So food and water are always key, as well as clothing that you REALLY hop you won't need.

When Rog showed up, he was alone, the thought of a night time trip with Rog on trails we had to drive to, that he hadn't been on in years, was just too much for most. So Rog jumped in our van and we were off. Keep in mind the temps had been in the upper 40's during the day and the temps were dropping, so we hoped the snow would set up nicely. K and I chose BC skis with metal edges. Rog chose his pair of XC skis. A vintage pair of waxless Rossi's (no edge and likely 210's). Add to that and his "pack" a 4oz water bottle.

We headed towards Bethel and began the search for the trail head, which was supposed to be near a "green post just past where the Crooked River crosses the road". We looked. We drove back and forth. Rog got out and stepped into a brook looking. We looked a bit more and then gave up. So we headed to Albany to find the pipeline, which was plan B.

We found a spot to park and headed out. The snow was firming up fast, but the snowmobile trail hadn't been used for awhile so there was a mix of rotten snow that you could punch through to very hard crust that I was glad to have and edge for. We headed up the trail, literally up- herringbone for the first few minutes. The moon was super bright and the night time views were very impressive. The climb mellowed and we were enjoying the tour, but in the back of my mind I was worried about the ski back down. With funky snow, bare spots, open streams, and a pretty good hill I was envisioning several near death experiences on the trip back- but I kept putting that out of my head.

The trail rolled along, giving us a chance to enjoy a few short descents, and our concern about the snow conditions was justified. We came to a spot that looked like we had come to a stream we couldn't cross, but we finally found a suitable snow bridge and gave it a go. We came to another stream, and with no snow bridge we jumped it (small gap). We came to yet another stream and decided to call it a day and begin to head back.

K and Rog were ahead of me and made it look easy. I got cocky and nearly did my famous star-fish-fired-from-a-cannon routine. The snow was fast, but I didn't feel like I could put much pressure on a single ski for fear of punching through and getting tossed, meaning edging was done in a very gentle way and in those situations where we had to stop quick we took the risk and punched down through and stopped quick.

However we became more comfortable and soon we enjoyed the ride, taking in the moon soaked landscape and enjoying the crisp air. We got back to the car and were chatting about the adventure with smiles on our faces. The snow conditions weren't great, the trail was just ok, but the joy of being out on skis under a beautiful moon with great people- well that just trumps it all.

I can't wait for my next trip with Rog.