Under gloomy skies and with a gloomy weather forecast, I waddled and
grumbled up the Tucks Trail to put in 1 last day and probably get out
.......

At Hermit Lake next to our "refrigerator", I noticed a heap of bear
scat and about an hour later, fellow patroller Les observed a cub on
Hillman's Highway.  As I headed up to The Bowl, weather dramatically
improved and whaddya' know, we had a magnificant bluebird day on our
hands.  Aged corn made for great skiing in Left Gully, Chute and on
Bowl Laps.  Hardly anyone showed up - spooked by lousy weather
forecasts, we guessed.  On the way outta' the Bowl, a passing shower
dampened things a bit and quicly left, creating a rainbow over Hermit
Lake and framing the distant Wildcat Mountain (from my vantage point
descending on the trail).

That night, we had our annual picnic with accolades and awards and
later on, some lite socializing.

Next morning ....well, I had planned to leave, but with a Bluebird
morning a change of plans were in order.  The forecast was for
thunderstorms to move in for the afternoon, so we hustled up Left
Gully.  Nearing the top, things felt a little funny and I observed
big dark clouds over the Mahousucs.  I got on the radio and made an
inquiry to Hermit Lake about the weather.  Many of the White Mountain
playgrounds (GoS, Tucks, Huntington, Cannon, Whitehorse, etc) are
east facing which means you can't see weather moving on from the
West.  A call was made to the Observatory and they verified storms
along the Kanc and by Gorham - weather was moving in quicker and
nastier than forecasted.  Some radio chatter from other WMNF stations
reported a nasty storm along the Kanc with hail.  Uh-oh, time to
click in and make turns.  A bit of rotted snow on top, but past the
narrows, sweet aged corn was had and the fun steep double fall line
on the skiers left was wonderful.  It's always fun to traverse out
into the Bowl from LG, too - after a satisfying run down one of my
all time favorites, you burst out into a huge ampitheatre surrounded
by snow, rock walls and ice cliffs.

Well, a cold shower passed through followed by sunshine.  A third
nasty icefall event in less than 24 hours occured in the center
Headwall.  Rains moved in the afternoon with hail and we decided to
pack it in.  The forest service served up some hot tea and leftovers
in the Ranger Station at Hermit Lake.

It was sad to leave for the season, but even with all of the foul
weather I did make turns 4 outta' the last 9 days and feel pretty
fortunate about that!

Mark

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