Henry Lott Pretenders.

Last week we (the non-fictious Kasson and Hornbeam) tried to put up another ascent on the falls, by way of a hike/cross country ski mixed route up Henry Lott Road and then northeast across the top of the mountain. And as the saying goes, there are senders, and pretenders. This time we ended up as pretenders.

The skiing was hard on the gradual uphill grade that is the beginning portion of Henry Lott Road. Relentless I believe is the word we consistently used. I had mixed emotions on the long road up, as the skis came off and on and I battled my efficiency on them. With the skis and my climbing gear in tow I think I was around 30 lbs or so. If it weren't for the compaction of a snowmobile's previous visit, I don't even think I could have made it as far as I did.

Problem was that when we left Henry Lott Road and headed northeast, we picked up another trail that actually took us back to the northwest (the direction we were coming from) and never quite cut the top of the ridge like we needed for landing correctly in the next valley over. At the top of the mountain looking down into the valley we needed, it just wouldn't work out to bushwhack our way back to the northeast in the right direction. And thus we had been defeated.

Aside from me blowing out one of my cross country shoes, Hornbeam losing a tread from one of his skis, and the unimaginable amount of snowsnakes that we had to dodge, we did land a sweet view of the northwest ridge of windy valley (behind me in the photo) from a fantastic foodplot northeast of Henry Lott Road. If it weren't for my ski shoe blowing out, I may have made some other bad decisions too. Just like always, it worked out yet again in windy valley.