Moments, Memories, and Adventures: Cold, Dark and Windy.... An Arduous Osprey Out and Back

It's been many years since I stayed in a modern cabin at Lake Metigoshe State Park. Just a few months ago the guys and I spent a night in the Yurt, as did my wife and I on another fall occasion. The Yurt was great. And of course the Osprey cabin is a favorite of ours as well. We've been there many times. In fact the first time was maybe around 7-8 years ago, maybe it was longer. I don't recall exactly. But a year or two later we were the first people to stay in that cabin in the winter time.

I had wanted to get some xc skiing in after having recently purchased some new skis, bindings and boots. So I thought renting a nice modern cabin with a shower would be perfect. I rented the Loon cabin. It's a great cabin! Here's a quick tour.

Once the registration was confirmed I let my brother Steve, and my friends Dave and Bob know. Dave thought he'd join me driving up after work. Steve and Bob had other ideas. They thought they'd rent the 'off grid' Osprey cabin and invite Tim to go with them. One thing about renting a cabin at Lake Metigoshe State Park is that they are not so easy to get unless you reserve way in advance. This means that you're not really sure what the weather will be like when you actually use the cabin. Just a few days before we arrived, the area had super high winds, a few inches of snow, and then the night before temps around or below -30° F. This meant the trails were not in the usual fantastic shape since park staff had other things to worry about.

We drove up together, had a bag lunch at the Loon then Steve, Tim and Bob set off on foot for the Osprey. I hung out at the Loon enjoying the quiet, reading, relaxing and making supper later waiting for Dave to arrive. My plans to get some skiing time were set aside because of the trail conditions, and a foot that happened to be giving me some problems at the moment. Getting older has it's disadvantages in aches and pains at times. About an hour after I finished supper Dave showed up. He unpacked his gear and we visited for a while. Earlier we had talked about skiing out to the Osprey to see the guys and have a hot chocolate, then ski back to the Loon. When Steve, Tim and Bob arrived at the Osprey about an hour and 20 minutes after they left the Loon earlier in the day on foot, they texted me (there is cell service there) and provided me with a trail conditions report that didn't sound all that great. In fact, Steve's trail report consisted of two words, "What trail?" Then he sent me a video that showed it took some work to get to the Osprey. It was a video of steam coming off of Bob's wool hiking pants as he warmed up by the wood stove! Check it out.

I shared Steve's report with Dave and we thought about it for a while as temps dropped below 0° once more. We checked the wind. It didn't seem bad.

"OK" we thought, let's ski (or try to) out there and back. I texted the guys at the Osprey saying we were getting dressed to ski out there. We asked more questions about parts of the 'trail' to get a better idea of what we were getting into and Steve suggested we bring an extra layer or two in a pack along with other winter necessities, best to stay safe. Twisting an ankle (or knee) at night in the middle of the forest in dropping temps can have consequences. In addition the weather forecast was for changing wind direction and increased speed later. Bob jumped into the texting conversation and shared his opinion about our coming out there,

"My opinion only: I'm not sure about you guys trying to ski over here. The trail is a wreck in places. Personally, I don't think it's worth it, but that will be your decision, of course", Bob suggested. His opinion gave us pause. Dave and I looked at each other.

Dave said, "How bad could it be?"

"OK", I said,"let's go".

We got dressed, threw some extra gear into our small packs, turned our headlamps on, texted our departure time, and took off. It was slow, difficult going. We soon understood Bob's recommendations, and Steve's advice about bringing some extra layers.

The park uses a tracked ATV to maintain the trail. Since it had been so cold the previous night or two and no one had been to the Osprey, the inside of the cabin was about the same temp as the outside air. Park staff had called Steve that morning to ask about his ETA at the Osprey. They had wanted to start a fire to warm the cabin some for their arrival which was simply fantastic! The trail we took was the same one they took to the Osprey and back to start that fire. It looked like the tracked vehicle had gotten stuck, or nearly stuck several times really messing up the trail in sections where there were larger snow drifts. This is what Bob had referred to. At times we tried to ski in the ATV tracks, other times it was better to stay off to the side of those tracks, most of the time, it was difficult to keep your skis going straight while your body worked to maintain balance and move forward. It was hard work.

We arrived at the Osprey tired, with Bob at the door demanding an admission fee! HA HA! Typical Bob. Steve made some hot chocolate and laid out a couple of snacks for use to consume while we took off our outerwear and extra layers so we could warm up in front of the nice wood stove. Both Dave and I had new skis and after a while the guys wanted to see them. So Steve opened the door to grab the skis and you could feel and hear that the wind had picked up. We stayed a while longer, but the increase in wind speed was a little concerning so we finished our cocoa, got dressed and left. It was colder out and the wind stung especially in some of the more open areas.

Skiing into the headwind was no fun, but the tracks we made on the way in were still there for the most part so skiing back out in them helped. In the open areas though we had a hard time seeing the trail at times because of the wind and blowing snow. Both Dave and I fell once on the way back as the footing was tricky on the polished snow at the top of hills in open areas. We got back to the Loon cabin about 11:30 pm. The batteries on my headlamp were almost done, having been drained from the cold and having my light on high to help see the snow surface better, noticing undulations, subsurface dips in the trail etc. . It was an arduous outing as evidenced by the story Dave's face told when we finally got back inside!

I used KT tape on my face to help block the stinging cold. It actually worked fairly well. Without having to wear a face mask, my clear sport glasses remained nearly fog free, until we got inside the warm cabin. This KT tape isn't the most fun to take off of your face. If it's really cold, I still think it's worth it when xc skiing.