Winter 2003 Event Summary

March 7-9, 2003

Summary

By Bob Gifford and Joe Ketcham

Friday morning, well it all started at 11:00am at the Taj (park-and-ride). We pooled up in Joe's van and headed out for Morristown. After two wrong turns (Bob should of brought his directions) we finally found the parking lot at the end of Beaver Meadow road. We set out at about 12:30pm on skis. Bob and Joe towed sleds and Shane went light. Joe's sled proved to have a higher co-efficient of friction then Bob's, being it weighed twice as much. Shane and Bob checked out Burling Cabin on the way in, where Shane broke his pole (Broken Pole Corner). We found Beaver Meadow lodge around 2:00pm and set a fire in the stove. Shane and Bob found Joe on the sun-soaked pond while collecting fire wood.

Friday evening Bob tapped his keg and the food flowed. We sat by the warm stove and played music, thinking Dave and Jon gave-up on coming in Friday. The boys were asleep by 10:00pm only to be awaken at 10:30pm by DP and Jon's fire cracker (M-80) entrance. DP and Jon did the walk in the dark (Tim take notice). Dave skied up using skis that were made in 1942! He say's they worked real well, the guys a freak'n trend-setter. Jon astounded us with his trek. After the shock of being awoken by a bomb, we partied a bit, while Jon un-thawed his feet by the stove, ate more food, read sports illustrated and crashed around mid-night

Saturday morning brought sunshine and warm temps. Bob and Shane ascended the Chilcoot trail to the summit of Madonna. They remained in contact with the Boys via radio. Bob once again tried to ski the Chilcoot trail. He found all but about 200 feet ski-able despite the variable conditions. DP, Joe and Jon skied around and sat in the sun. The spring-like weather brought out a few more folks than we normally see here this time of year. These two even stopped and flirted with Joe. As the sun was disappearing behind Madonna mountain, Chick and Jim showed up. They decided to come in the Morristown way and followed the same route the rest of us took.

Saturday evening we ate a ton of food with the high points being Sue's Lasagna and Shane's smoked trout and goat cheese treats. We stoked the stove and partied, played some tunes, ate more food than you're supposed to, read sports illustrated and celebrated Chick's birthday with our rendition of "happy birthday", along with a fireworks display provided by DP, my ears are still ringing. At around 10:30 we hit the hay. The lodge at this point was a broiling 80 degrees, mixed that with fumes of too-much-to-eat-drink and Bob's and Jon's snoring, it was a little hard getting to sleep. Saturday night was a record for our Beaver Meadow trip with 7 over-nighters.

Sunday morning dawned with sideways snow and several inches of accumulation. After a breakfast of sausage and eggs and trips to the outhouse we packed up and headed out around 9:30. Shane and Bob were at the cars in 50 minutes and all the others where no more then 15 minutes behind. The ski down was nice with fresh tracks the whole way down. All the sled rigs worked great on the downhill trip. We packed-up the vehicles and headed home.......ahh..home....shower-shave-sleep! A great time as always. Spending time with the "boys" is always a good thing. Until the next adventure!