Different Day Same Snow

Tuesday Morning, and it is still lightly snowing. Not as bad as yesterday. Normally you love snow, but it really puts a damper on what you can see in the mountains. Today was our first day of "free ride" riding without a guide. Armed with GPS, extra gear, and maps we left from the hotel, and almost immediately ran into another group of buffalo. Some other snowmobilers came from the opposite direction saying the trail was blocked by the rest of the herd, so we turned around and went in another direction.

The trails were much better in the treed areas, with less wind to blow the snow. The main trees around are called LodgePole Pine. Here is a sample of the trees.

Here is sample from an area that got burned in a fire in 1988. Devastating hardly describes it, but there was a lot of new growth so that was optimistic.

The LodgePole Pine (Pinus Contorta, Subspecies Latifolia) native to Rocky Mountains, Yukon to Colorado. Evidently they have 2 types of seeds, one which opens as they mature, and one that needs exposure to high temperatures (such as a forest fire) in order to open and release their seeds. Kind of natures way of taking care of itself. Enough science lesson for today :-)

After doing a couple of smaller loops, we headed out to try another, which would give us a little more mileage. We encountered more snow, and more snow. We got into the woods but it still did not let up.

After heading into the woods we got to the point where you could start seeing some of the "ghost trees" appearing, but the winds were blowing so bad we turned back. When we got back to town the snow let up and the town was cleaning up the snow. We were able to watch the massive snowblowers cleaning up the streets.