Ride Delaware ? Posted February 28, 2015 Report Posted February 28, 2015 After going to Vail, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to make it back to Vermont due to scheduling until the beginning of March. I didn't have anything scheduled before then, but a friend asked if I wanted to go riding in the Poconos this past weekend, so I offered an alternate option. I had been trying to get to Timberline and Blue Knob for several years now, and a friend had a cabin almost directly in-between, so despite the extra drive, we decided this would be the perfect time to try out some new mountains. The drive to my friend's cabin was about 5 hours from home, so I left about 3 PM. I encountered some minor traffic around DC to arrive at my friend's cabin around 8. He had warned me ahead of time that the cabin had been mostly winterized and the driveway hadn't been plowed. It had been a decent snow year, but I still figured I could get the Subaru down the driveway to the house. After I "redneck plowed" the hundred yard driveway, and almost bottomed out, I was able to get to the cabin. It was a toasty 0 degrees, so I turned the heat on and headed out to shovel the driveway entrance for my buddy whose two wheel drive Accord was never going to make it to the cabin. Unfortunately, the pipes had frozen and there would be no running water. However, after hiking the LT, that was the least of my concerns. My buddy arrived around 10 with some firewood, we got a fire started, and the cabin warmed up nicely. After falling asleep around midnight and sleeping restlessly, we awoke around 6 to get an early jump on the hour and forty five minute drive to Timberline. The snow hadn't begun at the cabin, so the drive was pretty uneventful until we hit Deep Creek, where the roads began to really get covered. Despite the snow, our drive was hardly impacted, and we still arrived in the lot at Timberline at 9. Knowing the size and layout of the mountain, I was a little surprised at the amount of development surrounding the mountain, especially since many of the homes were very high end. Despite the amount of development, the lot was only about half full and the snow was really coming down. Coupled with the copious amounts of natural snow the last few weeks, I knew that it was going to be a good day. After booting up in the parking lot beside the very basic 70's style hotel, we headed to the lodge in order to get our lift tickets and get the day started. The lift tickets were a little pricier than I expected at $66, but I knew the overall experience would be worth it. Since there are only two top to bottom lifts at Timberline, both triples, we headed over to the one below the lodge, waited a couple chairs, and then got on. Timberline was super laid back, mostly due to its lack of commercialism and recent bankruptcy, and while it was evident, it was exactly what I loved about the place. The first thing I did was ask about their off trail policy, and I was informed that "We don't really have one. If you can ski it, go for it". In addition to that, there were no ticket checkers and no uniforms on any employees. This place embodied the soul of skiing. We decided to take the "longest trail in the mid-Atlantic," Salamander, and our day at Timberline started. Salamander was wide and relatively flat. I was able to get down without skating, but it was a very slow run. There was plenty of dry fluffy powder starting to accumulate, but as the temperatures rose, the snow got wetter. It never changed to rain, but later in the day I began to think that it was starting to mix. We went past the upper triple which was right above the lodge, noticed it had no line, but we decided to head back down to the one that went to the true peak. It had started to develop a line, and since there was nobody organizing the lift corral, it was a disaster to get through it. After our next run down Silver Streak, which had excellent powder on the sides, we went to the other triple, and there was no line. We continued to lap that lift throughout the morning with hardly a lift line in sight. I followed that up with some runs in the trees, and they were superb. They were spaced a little far apart for my liking, but the coverage was excellent and hardly anyone had been in them. Some of the unmarked tree runs were a little tougher, but didn't have much flow. Unfortunately, very little trimming had been done outside of the marked glades. However, with 150-200" of annual snowfall, there would be a ton of potential if they would just clear out some of the underbrush. Maybe that will come in the future with more financial stability. Around 1 we decided to take a break for lunch. We went down to the old school lodge that while well maintained outside, was vastly undersized for the amount of people that were in it. The bathrooms were inadequate for the amount of seating, the cafeteria was far too small, especially with the group ticket buffet lunch area, and it took awhile to find a seat. However, the food was moderately priced and of decent quality for a ski area. It was very typical fare. Definitely nothing like the more advanced offerings that many of the top tier resorts are offering nowadays. Once we were done with lunch we decided to walk up to the upper triple and continue exploring. We hit "the Drop" which was one of the only areas with bumps. The bumps were terribly shaped and had no flow, but the snow helped to redeem the run. Afterward we decided to hit the skiers left of the mountain, most of which was easily accessible from the bottom triple, but was accessible by the other triple with some skating. We decided to take the skating option and worked our way through them. The last run we needed to cross off the entire mountain was Twister. The bottom of Twister has a weird intersection with a bridge. There were a couple of random sticks of bamboo to mark the trail, but no clearcut direction. I saw an area that looked groomed, dropped off the edge onto it, and worked my way down. Somewhere in-between seeing the man walking his dog and winding through houses, I finally came to the conclusion that I had taken a wrong turn and ended up on a development driveway. I ended up on the access road and decided to hike back to the mountain. It only took me about 20 minutes to cover the half mile and I waited at the base for my friend to arrive. He took the same route and arrived about 15 minutes later. We were nearing the end of our day, so we decided to head up to the upper triple to take one or two more runs. I hit up White Lightning and the woods to skiers left two times in a row, and we decided to end our day. We ended the day about 3:45 and headed back to the car. The storm was starting to taper off and the snow that was still falling was wet and not accumulating. The roads were covered and hardly plowed, so the drive back was a little slower than the drive in. Since we didn't have any running water at the cabin, we decided to stop in Deep Creek for dinner at Brenda's Pizzeria and follow it up with Hot Tub Time Machine 2. We got back to the cabin around 10, started a fire, and crashed. Overall, our first day was well worth the extra drive. The mountain was fun even though it wasn't very steep. It reminded me a bunch of Elk. Even though the mountain was very mellow, the snow was excellent, and the overall experience was as good as it gets in the mid-Atlantic. I may not make a special trip out there to hit it again, but if I'm ever in the area, I wouldn't hesitate to give it another shot. I would suggest trying it out if your in the area. Now, what your all waiting for, the pictures: 6 Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted February 28, 2015 Author Report Posted February 28, 2015 Thats pretty much what the pics are for. This ain't no GSS friendly trip report... I like to give the deets. However, your complaint has been duly noted and logged with my secretary. 1 Quote
RidgeRacer Posted February 28, 2015 Report Posted February 28, 2015 RideDE where have you been? Nice post! Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted February 28, 2015 Author Report Posted February 28, 2015 Haven't been too active lately. Guess there is just other stuff going on. I always try to post TRs of new places I've been to... Quote
toast21602 Posted February 28, 2015 Report Posted February 28, 2015 Great timing. Looks great. Thanks for the report! Quote
indiggio Posted March 1, 2015 Report Posted March 1, 2015 real nice TR and pics. Ditto! +1 the deets! Quote
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