Sue Sullivan got an email last Tuesday February 16, about two trees down on lower High Voltage (just had to say that…) in the Edison SnoPark. A couple of us were already planning on a ski at Edison, so we made sure our saws were in our packs! We were then joined by another crazy guy, so we suddenly had a trail maintenance crew! But only two trees; so we took off in the opposite direction of the downed trees and skied up the DC trail. It was a beautiful day with great views up by AC/DC shelter.
It was nice on DC to have several people ahead of us breaking trail through the 8 inches of new snow. But suddenly, the tracks disappeared. And then one couple skied down DC, then another on untracked snow. After asking each couple coming down DC how they got there, we finally realized they all had somehow cut across from DC to AC on the Tesla snowshoe trail! So going down AC past Tesla and then down Supercharger, we had to break our own trail. But at least it was downhill.
After about six miles of skiing, we finally reached the first tree. It was small diameter, so not a problem. But the second tree was about 10″ in diameter and hung high across the trail. Using our 15″ saws, it took an effort just to cut it. And then we had this big log lying across the trail. Not to worry! The master tree cutter advised us to use our Assets! Literally, we sat down in the snow and foot by foot, pushed the log to the side of the trail. We all felt great when it was down and out of the way; but by the time we got back to the cars and down the hill to home, none of us lasted very late into the evening!
Photos by Louise Brown
