Saturday February 18, 2012

Sometimes big surprises come in small packages. I went out to Wolf Creek Mountain today. I honestly wasn’t expecting a lot after some of the massive mountains I have been to this winter. I had a blast! They really do have the most snow in Colorado. I saw the most soft, fresh, untouched snow today than anywhere else, except after days that had big snow dumps. There hasn’t been any snowfall here for a while, but there were still untouched and really deep areas all over the mountain, especially in the trees. That is astonishing considering that the mountain is not all that big.

It was a different kind of snow here, much heavier it seems. I had gotten arrogant recently. After the first few weeks I was saying how I wasn’t getting soar legs or tired by the end of the day anymore. Working through all the heavy powder today made my legs burn a bit. Still not as bad as the first few weeks. I’m glad all my preparations are paying off in dividends.

The whole mountain had such a different ‘feel’ to it than other bigger resort type mountains. The closest accommodations are 25 miles away. The people were super nice. They had the old school style lift tickets. Still just a sticker on a metal hanger that a human being had to look at each time. All mountains I have been to lately have bar scanners or RF credit card style cards. This place even had what appeared to be a pavilion at the base where they held birthday parties! I felt like I was at the local ice rink and they were herding groups of birthday parties through. You’ll never see that type of hometown, intimate features at the giant mountains.

I walked into breakfast this morning and the first thing I see is a bright orange Flyers tee shirt staring me right in the face. It was a couple of brothers from Bucks County. Really nice fellas. They let me sit with them for breakfast and have nice conversation. The one had a Flyers tee shirt on and the other had a scuba tee shirt on. Can’t be anything wrong with these two guys.

Apparently even the mountain was expecting The Carnival and set up a special WIFI connection for me. It would stand for Wolf Creek, but I highly doubt it. I also saw a sticker for the Darkside Snowboard Shop in Killington today. Seemed like an odd place, middle of nowhere Colorado and I see a sticker from back home. I got confused for a minute.

I forgot to mention that the stellar Hillside Inn is pet friendly. That is great, I could have brought my entire family. All 3 of them don’t shower, like a bunch of animals ;-).