Hmmm. That might make it difficult. I haven't tried that road in a while.

Hanley

Rumor had it that it was still hard to get through to Sweets last weekend. But, you can still make it quite a ways up to add at least a few more rapids...........

Richwood has received 1' of snow with another 6" predicted by Friday morning. I haven't talked to a ranger yet but there's bound to be 2'+ up in the Cranberry Glades. XC conditions would be looking great for a Jan. but they are simply spectacular for mid Nov. Weekend weather looks sunny and beautiful:
[forecast.weather.gov]

We've got a pack of BWA partying at the 4 Seasons Lodge and hitting the trails Fri., Sat and Sun. Check out the XC trail map of the Cranberry I've attached and ere's a link to some shots of another BWA XC trip to the Cranberry in 2003:
[picasaweb.google.com]

Come on if you can. If you need XC ski gear let me know as I might be able to fix you up or there are rentals in Richwood.
barryg

Hoping to leave super early sat. am and meet yall by 10:30ish. Barry i have your number, i'll be in touch. havent been to that area before, looking forward to it! if anyone wants to catch a ride, give me a shout...heading back sunday after hopefully yakin down the Middle G.

yakski
9707781002

I just put a call in to the FS ranger at the Cranberry and he reports that the XC skiing conditions are excellent with an estimated 1.5' of snow on the ground and another 6-8" (or more) predicted. No bailouts for me:-)

If anyone else is thinking about coming along but is unsure about gear, rides, camping/lodging, etc just give me a call and I'll be glad to fill you in. There now appears to be quite a crew headed over to WV - WooHoo! Snow is whitewater too!
barryg

What a great whitewater weekend with a fun crew! Not a single helmet or .PFD to be seen.

Sipple, JBob, Elizabeth, Super Dave, Frank Loudermilk, Barry and Cynthia G. and myself rolled into Richwood, WV and took over the Cranberry Backcountry this weekend for some cross-country skiing in near perfect conditions. Plenty of swimmers, a few strainers, blue skys, Uno and sub-par Chinese food. Can't wait to do it again yall, I had a blast.

JBob found out he's a natural on skis, I see a potential BWA'er in the next winter olympics with some dedicated training. Its the stopping that seems to be the crux...whoohoo! I'm sore.

Glad you guys had the freshies, I think we're getting it this week! I've been hitting the trails too, 40+ miles over the last two weekends: a summit on Mt. sopris, a trip to the hot springs, and a handful of mountain biking miles during lunch. Just about all of the trails around at higher elevation still have copious amounts of solid whitewater, albeit a little on the firm side from 3 weeks of beautiful mild temps. Well, change is in the air, waking for my morning heated whitewater therapy to a whopping 6 degrees air temp. The mountains gods were given celebrations of fire and drum over the weekend are pumping snow into the air for that perfect cementious base for the natural stuff to start piling over the Thanksgiving weekend. Those world cup gals love that stuff too, its fast!

BTW, more good news! The Basalt ww park has received funding and should be in place by the spring runoff! It's not going to be like the big sur smashing wave in West Glenwood, but should be something Sipple would refer to as handicap accessible perfection. We'll just have to wait and see how the boaters and flyfishers find middle ground.

Get those ski legs ready!
Dustin

Dustin Anderson



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2008 04:48PM by wirednut14er.

It was a stellar weekend of XC in WV with incredible conditions for mid November. It just doesn't get much better than deep, fast, powder snow, blue skies up on Blue Knob (elevation 4383') and a hanging around a warm fire with good friends in a frozen wilderness wonderland.

The need for speed award has to go to Superdave who was ripping it up on his new, super fast Epoke 215s. Jbob dominated the "newby to expert XC skier in a weekend" award and Brandon you win 2 awards, the "best reason to have a spare key hidden on your car" award and the "fastest XC downhill while in a sitting position" award:-)

Let's do it again next weekend! C6 and I are looking at heading up to Canaan Valley if the weather holds for more XC skiing. Additional snow is predicted for every day this week. If anyone wants to meet up there just let me know. Camping is available @ the Canaan Valley State Park for $17.50/night which includes a heated bathroom / shower / washer / dryers and hot tub privileges at the lodge up the hill.
barryg

Glad you guys had the freshies, I think we're getting it this week! I've been hitting the trails too, 40+ miles over the last two weekends: a summit on Mt. sopris, a trip to the hot springs, and a handful of mountain biking miles during lunch. Just about all of the trails around at higher elevation still have copious amounts of solid whitewater, albeit a little on the firm side from 3 weeks of beautiful mild temps. Well, change is in the air, waking for my morning heated whitewater therapy to a whopping 6 degrees. The mountains gods were given celebrations of fire and drum over the weekend are pumping snow into the air for that perfect cementious base for the natural stuff to start piling over the Thanksgiving weekend. Those world cup gals love that stuff too, its fast!

BTW, more good news! The Basalt ww park has received funding and should be in place by the spring runoff! It's not going to be like the big sur smashing wave in West Glenwood, but should be something Sipple would refer to as handicap accessible perfection. We'll just have to wait and see how the boaters and flyfishers find middle ground.

Get those ski legs ready!
Dustin

Dustin Anderson

Mt Sopris Dustin !! You told me about that last summer and I still don't know how you make it ??