Another Fine Mess

One of many trees that were on the trails this week.

All of western Montana got blown away last Wednesday and Seeley Lake was no exception. The wind was howling, trees were dropping with reckless abandon and some folks were without power for 48 hours. There may still be people without power for all I know.

The ski trails always take a beating when the wind rages. Not only do we get trees falling all over the place, but the amount of debris that blows in is mind boggling. Needles, boughs, limbs, lichen, you name it. It is a colossal mess and the only thing that can fix it is snow to cover it up.

Some of the worst debris.

Fortunately, Lynn knew we were going to be in a world of hurt trying to get the trails cleared after the holocaust and he had the presence of mind to call Matt, our connection at the Seeley Lake Ranger District. Matt hooked us up with three sleds, chain saws and the manpower to go with it. While those guys were cutting out the trails our volunteer groomers were working to make them skiable. After about four hours of intensive logging the trails were open, but far from skiable. It took two teams of groomers the better part of the day to get major debris off the trails by hand and machine. There's still a lot of junk on the snow but it's skiable, even if it's not great.

Limbs on the storage container.

It would be pretty tough to destroy the shipping container where we store one of our sleds and a ginzu, but a well-placed tree could wipe out about $15,000 worth of grooming equipment, plus another $4k for the shed. I'm not sure what this looked like before it was cut out, but the post mortem appeared as though a tree had gone down parallel to the container, leaving limbs on the roof and a mess to the side.

Tree that narrowly missed the shipping container.

The forecast is calling for a couple inches of snow tomorrow and we sorely need it to make things reasonably skiable again. In fact, we could really use about a foot, but not all at one time. If we could get a few inches a day for four or five days in a row, we would be in excellent shape. The boughs and needles and junk would disappear, we'd have the base we need and life would be good. So, if anyone has any influence over the weather now would be a perfect time to exercise it. Thank you in advance.

Please, Don't Make Me Cranky

Really?

I am at the stage of life where I am allowed to be a crank and get away with it. And having my very own personal blog, I get to be a crank in a public forum, a true luxury. I struggle mightily not to abuse this privilege, but it seems like every year my chain gets yanked about something and I take to this page to vent. Last year it was smoke pollution from the yurt stove, the year before it was dogs on the ski trails, and lord knows what else I've pissed and moaned about in this space. Today's lecture will be on the topic of parking.

Anyone who has skied at Seeley Lake on the weekend knows that parking can be at a premium. If it's a holiday weekend then the problem is compounded. Sure, if you arrive early in the morning the lot is fairly empty and you can park wherever you like with very little competition. But, get there around noon and you may find yourself parking on the road. That's why it's important that folks using our parking lot try to be as efficient and thoughtful as possible when they park. That means first and foremost pull head in to your space leaving enough room to the next car that you don't bang doors but you aren't taking up two spaces, either. And whatever you do, DON'T PARK PARALLEL IN THE MAIN LOT!!!!

I'm not sure what the owner of the van in the photo was thinking, but that is a big ass van and took up at least three, if not four, spaces. This was Saturday, January 2, on a holiday weekend that saw as much traffic on the ski trails as I have ever seen, with the exception of OSCR days. The lot was stuffed full forcing skiers to park on the road as well as across the road in the snowmobile area. The exception to parking parallel is if the main lot is full and you park adjacent to the groomer sheds where we can squeeze in another ten vehicles or so parking parallel out to the road. If you have a large vehicle that will stick out too far in the main lot when you park straight in, either park at the east end of the lot or go across the road to the snowmobile parking lot.

When I finished skiing the big ass van was blocked from both the front and the rear, so maybe there is some karmic justice in the world.

As bad as that was, the worst I have ever seen is two trucks with snowmobile trailers attached parked nose to tail the length of the lot. Bad enough that snowmobilers would use what is obviously intended for cross country skiers, but they took up well over 70' of space. Oh, well, sled heads, what do you expect?

Lynn has instructed me that as long as I'm on a rant I should remind snowshoers and walkers to stay off the ski trails and use the roads. I seriously doubt that any of them will be reading this post, but if you are, please, stay the hell off the ski trails. Can't you tell you're tearing up the surface with every step you take? Use the snowmobile trails adjacent to the ski trails. You can even take your dog there and he or she can poop and run to his heart's content.

Goodbye 2020

Both of these creatures are related to me. One by blood, the other by bond.

Realizing that I succeeded in offending almost everyone with my opening image last year, I've decided to run with a photo that should have universal appeal. The one possible exception might be our good friend, Lynn, who is a passionate dog lover, but whose gag reflex is violently triggered by babies. I envision a conflicting reaction of a smile suppressed by the overwhelming need to puke. This experience is commonly referred to as "mixed emotions", which kinda sums up my feelings about the past year.

2020 has been a cruel year and the sooner we get it behind us the better. I'm not naive enough to think that a simple turn of the calendar page will put all this chaos behind us, but I am done with 2020. COVID, George Floyd, the election.....jeez, enough is enough. We have vaccines on the way (barring a variant that upends progress), racial injustice is finally being acknowledged, and the election is settled. Let's move on, shall we?

Unfortunately, even with vaccines in our near future, COVID is still going to dictate our daily lives for a while. That includes cross country skiing and activities and events at the Seeley Creek trails.

OSCR is the premier event of the Seeley ski season and a lot of you have questions. Will it be cancelled? Is it happening? If it happens, what will it look like?

The short answer is, yes, OSCR is happening, at least for now. The long answer is it will look and feel very different than in the past. Missoula County has stringent restrictions in place regarding sporting events and public gatherings in general. Historically, OSCR has attracted up to 150 racers along with at least that many spectators. That won't even begin to fit within the county guidelines, and even if it did, the club wouldn't feel good about staging a traditional race. We considered sending racers out in small waves and limiting spectators, but that seemed risky, too, plus also added layers of complexity to management of timing, social distancing, numbers of people, and on and on. Additionally, we discovered that most likely we wouldn't be able to obtain liability insurance to cover our butts when some brain dead skier wanders off the course and somehow winds up in Lincoln with frostbite.

So....here's where we are at this point, with this caveat: everything is subject to change, up to and including, cancellation. OSCR will be a DIY event. The club will groom and sign the course, using the 25k, 2-loop configuration. We will still have 5, 10, 25 and 50k options available. You can ski either Saturday or Sunday and if conditions warrant we will groom the course again on Sunday morning. You will be responsible for your own timing. We will provide a table at the start/finish that will have a book where you can log your time. (Lynn says we can allocate $10 for a clock on the table, but I'm struggling vigorously to get him to spring for the $11 version with a snooze button.) We'll compile the times and post them on the club website where all you OCD participants can discover how you stacked up to the competition. No prizes, no awards, just good old-fashioned personal satisfaction with completing the challenge. And let's face it, for most of us that's all it ever comes down to, anyway.

Before or after you finish skiing we would be undyingly grateful if you would make your way to the donation tube/metal ranger and leave the ski club a nice fat, generous freewill love offering. Along with grants and donations, OSCR is our primary fund raiser and every cent we get from it goes right back into maintaining the quality grooming that you expect to find every time you make the drive to Seeley Lake. Since this is a scaled-down (non)event we won't have the overhead we would normally have with swag, aid stations, prizes, etc. but we also don't expect the numbers of participants. Any income we can pick up from this truncated form of OSCR is welcome.

That's my understanding of where we are with OSCR at this point. Keep in mind that I am not the race director, I'm just a pretty face who was told it was my turn to be club president based on my marginal social skills and a relentless ability to keep meetings on track. I fully expect to be corrected and/or excoriated in the comments section.