Cross Country Skiing North Fooses
Day 2 of the cross country backup plan found us on skiing some ground I had previously covered on my thru-hike of the Colorado Trail. In the summer, it’s a 4X4 road to a parking area to the trailhead for North Fooses. In the winter, plowing stops after the residential area ends and it’s a quiet place to ski or snowshoe without snowmobiles.
Like yesterday’s trip up Cottonwood Pass, this trail started out very steep and then mellowed out a bit. We were the only tracks that day that went past the socked in parking area and continued up the trail. Fooses is a scenic walk through the woods that is pretty easy at first, but then gets steeper the further in you go. We made it past the second bridge before we started spinning our wheels… I mean skis… and turned around.
You get cold fast once you stop pushing your way uphill. We both shook up a Hot Hands to put inside our mittens.
The snow on the trail was very soft and buttery to kick through and slide down. Once we rejoined the 4X4 road, it was pretty packed down. That made for some white knuckles grasping our poles on some of the steeper sections. Thankfully, there was soft stuff on the edges to run into.
We didn’t go as far this day, I believe a little under 6 miles. So we had plenty of time to grab Debbie (who let us stay at her place) and eat at my favorite sandwich shop in town, Sweetie’s. I made sure to grab a giant brownie to share with Sarah that evening, after we enjoyed the relaxing adult soak time at the Salida pool.
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