12/6/08

Day 8

Conditions: Powder
Location: Boyne Mountain, MI

This was possibly the most eventful day we have experienced together as snowboarders. Everything that could happen did happen. We arrived in Boyne City to more than a foot of fresh snow. No one went out the day before (Friday). So, for the first time at Boyne we had a lot to choose from. We bought our 4 hour passes (this will be important later) and headed off.

We warmed up and then went to Disciples Chair, because nothing was groomed there. We took a couple great runs through the trees. They had been untouched all year and the coverage was great. We decided to go down a main run called Devil’s Dive. It was not groomed, so there was knee deep powered, but several people had already skied down it. We got off the chair lift and prepared to strap in. Then, the following incident took place.

Random skier: Hey, stop snowplowing down Devil’s Dive!
Dirk: Me?
Random Skier: Yeah, someone is scraping snow off my run, and I’m pretty sure it was you.
Dirk: And you think that was me.
Random skier: Yeah, you look like a gaper! (Laughs to himself and skies about 10 yards toward Steph) And you too. (Pushes Steph off the traverse path as he skies by.)
Steph: What the f-- is your problem?
Random skier: Settle down B---!
Steph: You’re an ass.
Random skier: Come catch me! (Skies off)

We called ski parole and the patroller actually tried to rationalize the behavior, stating that some skiers are frustrated with snowboarders. Yeah, that makes it right. In the end, he took down the description and said he’d talk to the guy if he saw him. We found the patroller at the end of the day, and they had not found him. Our only confort is that some day that kid will walk into a bar, start talking smack, and get his ass whomped.

We took a few more runs and went in for lunch. It didn’t seem like we had been out that long. We got to the lift line after lunch and had our 4-hour passes clipped because it was 1:20 and our passes expired at 1:00. The liftie let us ride up one more time, so we decided to go under a closed rope and hike up Superbowl. We couldn’t ride the lift without passes anyway, and we knew there would be good snow there. We made it to Superbowl and took off our boards to hike, when a mechanic on a snowmobile caught us and told us the area was closed. We waited until he left, and went to another area to hike.

We successfully hiked this other area of woods, which we ride every now and then. It is probably considered out of bounds, and the trees are not cleaned up, because they don't want people ridig there. The run is normally great, but someone chopped down a bunch of trees or something, because it was virtually unrideable. There was lumber and carnage everywhere. When we finally made it to the bottom, we were beat up, and so was Dirk's board. We caught our breaths just in time to see another snowmobile was going by, this time with a patroller. He reminded us that the area was closed. “We know,” was all Dirk said. The patroler didn't say anything else. I think he saw our tracks and knew we had a rough run and were getting out of there anyway.

With no hiking or lift options, we called it a day.

Highlights:

- The snow and the trees – obviously.

Lowlights:

- Pretty much everything except the snow and the trees.

Après Ski: We stayed at the Water Street Inn, watched football, and cooked burritos.

Days to go: 42