We were cross country skiing up the snow-covered Forest Service road toward Fourmile Lake. The trail offered mostly good conditions, although the main route had obviously been traveled by snowmobiles and a few other skiers.
The setting was serene. Mike Reeder and I glided along the steady but gradual uphill trail, glad to be outside in the idyllic winter setting. Because it was a weekday, we had the trail to ourselves. The quiet swoosh of our skis was only infrequently interrupted when snow-burdened trees suddenly unloaded branch loads of snow.
A couple of miles into our ski, the stillness was broken by an increasingly louder sound of an engine. Into sight came a large snowcat slowly making its way downhill, carving and leaving in its wake a broad path and a crenulated corduroy track. We stepped aside as it passed alongside. Its operators, Ken Crutchfield and Jim Goosen, paused long enough to exchange greetings before forging on. Their snowcat was a 2015 PistenBully, one of two own