Since snow hasn’t visited the Upper Valley in sufficient quantity to cross country ski, I took advantage of the long weekend to find a better venue. In the process, I had a rare opportunity to visit Eileen in northern New York! She'd previously told me she had some work to do this morning but I also had a four hour drive that would align our availability. After packing up my car in a light snow storm (there was finally some accumulation), I left my condo at around 0535. I stopped for gas at Irving in Hanover (0545) and then drove south to I-89. I had decided to take the route with the shortest distance and this meant that I was only on I-89 for a short distance. Getting off the Interstate in the Royalton area, I started to encounter a lot more snow as I drove west mostly at high elevations. I passed the time with audiobooks and the driving got easier as the sun came up. I used VT-107, VT-12, VT-100, VT-125 and US-7 to reach Middlebury (scary, unplowed roads on the pass near the Long Trail). After that, I used VT-125 to get to the southern end of Lake Champlain, where I crossed into New York. I then took NY-185, NY-9N (to Keene, NY) and NY-73 (to Lake Placid). The snow never really stopped but the roads were mostly OK whenever I was not on a mountain pass... I used NY-86, NY-30 and NY-458 to reach NY-11B. After that, I got on NY-72 and it took me almost all the way to Eileen's. However, the last few miles involved Google Maps taking me on round-about dirt roads across farm fields. In the end, I got to her house at around 1020 (10 minutes earlier than I'd told her). Eileen was still working and asked if I could wait for a little while longer before we got lunch or went out for some exercise. This was fine with me and Brenna called a bit later, allowing me to pass the time before it was time to order lunch (Eileen called A1 Kitchen in Potsdam). I drove over to pick up the food at around 1145 (still talking to Brenna) and, after getting back, ate my lunch special (shrimp lo-mein and pork fried rice). Eileen had a work call that lasted until almost 1300 but then she asked where I'd like to go cross country skiing. After a bit of discussion, we settled on visiting Higley Flow State Park (near South Colton). Even after deciding, it took us (Eileen, Mika and me) a while to get there and, as a result, we weren't on the trails until almost 1400. I’d visited Higley during the summer a few years ago and remembered they had great trails - I was not disappointed! The freshly groomed system already had a nice packed ground layer and they had just got three inches of fresh snow. The conditions were perfect so we spent almost two hours in the frigid (10 F) North Country woods and had a blast. As always, Eileen saw lots of people she knew... Along the way, we checked out the Pine Trail, the camping areas (including loops) and the Beaver Pond Trail (not maintained). I had some trouble with the steeper areas (lots of ice too) but got a lot of exercise. After were were finished skiing (1600), we drove back to Potsdam (via NY-56) and picked up a lot of groceries at Price Chopper. Back at Eileen's we prepared our dinner. Actually, Eileen did most of the work to make the food (broiled chicken with a peach jam glaze, green beans, snow peas, rice). My contribution was some bottles of wine I'd found that were representative of my visit to Patagonia. Eileen really liked these and we talked a lot, laughed and reminisced. At 2000, Eileen suggested a movie and we ended up choosing "Enola Holmes". Over the next few hours, I watched the movie but Eileen fell asleep. I was tempted to switch to something else, however, I couldn't reach the remote... The movie turned out to be good, though. The movie ended at around 2200 and we then relaxed in the warm quiet of Eileen's cozy home. She got her second wind at around 2230 and started cleaning and doing other chores (!!!). Meanwhile, I read and caught up some emails/texts. We finally retired for the night at around 2300. It has been great to have a chance to see Eileen and get away from the normal New Hampshire life!
