Waterburried

Every time I drive by Waterbury there are two different lines that I always think about. Both are power line trails. One is on the Stowe side of the highway, the other is across the Winooski. Both are visible from 89, right before the exit. With the two feet of snow Northern Vermont saw at the beginning of the week, Matt and I decided to spend the morning doing some suburban splitboarding.

At the bottom of the dam
Hot rocks melting an area of snow

The sun was out, so we decided to start at the Waterbury dam, which has good light in the morning. We arrived and found a significant layer of surface crust. Despite our disappointment, we decided to hike to the top of the dam and check out the other side. The snow on the other side of the dam was much softer and lacked a crust, but it was not nearly deep enough. We headed down and moved on to check out the power line trail off of Duxbury Road. JP met up with us for the hike.

Looking up at the first trail

After 20 or 30 minutes we reached the top. The snow was definitely there, but the grade was not. The ride down was fun, but rather uneventful. JP did drop a small cliff, which was a bit sketchy, given the manky underbrush and tree stumps hiding under the snow.

Matt

JP

Billy Ocean. What more do you need?

After we were done, JP took off, and Matt and I headed to the second power line trial. We parked in a neighborhood at the top of the trail and quickly took off though a few backyards. We arrived at the top of the trail to find more crust. We decided to drop down anyway. We both had to point it, as turns were almost impossible with the crust. Matt stuck an Austin Flip and cut his lip a bit on the upper layer of ice. Other than that, it was uneventful. We skinned back up in a shaded area, which would have made for a much more fun down than the open power line trail.

Getting ready for the second power line trail

We then went back to the dam to hike a few runs on a short, steep open hill right off of the road before the dam. After a few laps we decided to call it a day. I felt surprisingly worked for such a simple day.

The last hill

Setting up shots

-Austin