23 January 2008

The Moulton Journal: Swix Polar Weather Continues

It was about -10 deg F starting out this morning in the pre-dawn hours. The almost full moon was still high enough to shed some light on the frigid landscape:

A perfect morning for Swix Polar, this wax made for good climbing and gliding around Buzzy, The Yankee Boy, the Nippers, and back down the road to the truck. Not as fast as Purple Swix at 30 deg F, but fast enough that it felt like skiing instead of sliding along on sandpaper (as it seemed the other night at -20 or so). Along the top of Buzzy, the rising sun filtered through the trees and brought a little welcomed warmth:

Skiing hard makes me thirsty, and I don't like toting the weight & bulk of an insulated bottle. It only works for a few hours, but I keep my Gatorade from freezing by making it with hot water and then wrapping it in a paper sack before tucking it into the pocket of my fanny pack:

There was an unusual abundance of mouse tracks running this way and that through the woods and over the fields. And tracks of a fox or two, hunting the mice. Are mice more active on nights with a bright moon? Nope--not according to the literature. Turns out they are far more active with the new moon (c. 3,000 feet moved per day vs. just a few hundred). Makes sense, I guess: the full moon provides owls, fox, and other predators some advantage. They must of just been hungry last night, what with the prior stormy weather and exceptional cold.

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The Moulton: Montana's Finest Cross Country Ski Trails

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