Weekend Getaways: February 2008
Text by Robert Earle Howells

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PACIFIC
Washington, Dodge an Avalanche
A game of hide-and-seek with avalanche beacons can be a whole lot of fun—if no one is attached to the beacons. Enroll in the American Alpine Institute's three-day avalanche safety course on Mount Baker and practice probing for buried victims through snow and ice and reading rutschblocks, layers in a carved-out hunk of snow that can tell you if the stratum is likely to slide off that day. Besides two days in the field (out-of-bounds at the Mount Baker ski area), the course includes classroom instruction and culminates in a very safe half-day ski tour ($235; www.mtnguide.com). The dorm-style Mount Baker Lodge is your avalanche-proof retreat ($30; www.mountaineers.org/lodge/baker).


Oregon, Cross Nordic Powder
At Ski Anthony Lakes, stats tell a big part of the story: 1,100 skiable acres (445 hectares), 300 inches (762 centimeters) of annual snowfall, 7,100-foot (2,164-meter) base elevation (highest in Oregon), 25 miles (40 kilometers) of sweetly groomed cross-country and skate tracks ($12 for a Nordic pass; www.anthonylakes.com). But the numbers fall short when describing the Elkhorn Range's glacier-scoured peaks or how XC trails are designed for maximum solitude. The time-warp Geiser Grand Hotel ($79; www.geisergrand.com), 35 miles (56 kilometers) away in Baker City, has views of the mountains and Saturday bus pickups for $8.


California, Kick Up Your Heels
You choose: Head to your local ski hill and search out a guy named Knute who teaches telemark every other Thursday, or matriculate in the Mountain Adventure Seminars Telemark Ski School, a master's program that focuses on the sport's essence: controlling speed on steep terrain and skiing ungroomed powder or crud ($145 for two days; www.mtadventure.com). The school is in Bear Valley, an unsung ski area in the Sierra between Tahoe and Yosemite. Go February 8 to 10 for freeheeling heaven: The Bear Valley Telemark Festival ($45). 


MOUNTAIN
Arizona, Run a Red-Rock Marathon
When the red dust settles on the hilly, high-altitude (4,100 to 4,600 feet [1,250 to 1,402 meters]) Sedona Marathon, you may not have bagged a personal best, but you'll have substantially boosted your cosmic mojo ($88; www.sedonamarathon.com). The race, which takes place on February 9 and also includes a half-marathon and a 5K, undulates through the piñon pines of Coconino National Forest, passing beneath red-rock spires and traversing one of Sedona's famous energy vortexes, Boynton Canyon—said to be the birthplace of the Apache tribe. Forty percent of the course is on a joint-saving dirt road that wends through parkland. And since not even a vortex can replace the fuel in a plate of carbs, dig into a $10 pasta feast at Bistro Bella Terra beforehand (www.bistrobellaterra.com). Recover afterward with a sport-specific massage at Thunder Mountain Wellness Center, which offers a 20 percent discount
on bodywork (www.tmwc.org).


Idaho, Go Yurting
The XC trail and yurt system in the Boise Mountains, 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the state capital, is one of Idaho's pretty little secrets. A tangle of interconnecting pistes fans out from parking areas off State Route 21 and will get you to within hiking distance of five yurts. Five miles (eight kilometers) from the road, for example, through a forest of ponderosa and lodgepole pines, sits Banner Ridge yurt, which has views downvalley to the south fork of the Payette River and up to the spires of the Sawtooth Range. Each hut rests on a platform above deep powder and comes equipped with a woodstove and firewood, futon and bunk beds, and a fully stocked kitchen. Out the front door lie 2,000 vertical feet (610 meters) to telemark and—within 200 yards (183 meters)—60 miles (97 kilometers) of trails, 26 miles (42 kilometers) of them groomed. Can't get a reservation? Try for May. The snow'll still be there ($75; www.idahoparks.org/lodging/backcountryyurts.aspx).
 

Utah, Pull 3 g's Headfirst
"There are no brakes. You'll feel panic boil up inside you. Resist it. Just stay on that sled." That's how Steve Revelli, western regional director for the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, describes a first-rustn experience at the Utah Olympic Park's Bobsled Fantasy Camp in Park City ($1,500 for five days of bobsled and skeleton runs; www.olyparks.com). The course starts with a track walk and lessons in "curve theory"—the principle that explains how your bobsled safely and naturally follows the lines of the track as it reaches 3 g's of pull for as long as three seconds. Curve theory, however, applies only if you're in a perfectly balanced position, a skill imparted by your instructors, some of the best sledders in the world. Day by day, campers start farther up the track (the bottom is the flattest part) until they hit speeds of 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour).


CENTRAL
Minnesota, Mush the Boundary
Paul Schurke is a mushing maestro. In 1986 he drove a team of yapping canines to the North Pole with Will Steger, an unsupported trek that lasted 55 days. But the Arctic veteran will not abide any expedition-style hardships for the tyro dog drivers who visit his Wintergreen Lodge, a winter-only retreat north of Ely. Plan on saunas, French chefs, and cozy lakeshore lodges in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. And, of course, a team of friendly Canadian Inuit dogs. "They're such a hoot—not as high-strung as Siberian huskies," Schurke says. "They're big, full-furred, and very approachable." The pups are yours to drive and care for over the course of a three-night lodge-to-lodge trip through stands of old-growth white pines and beneath cliffs of pink granite ($600; www.dogsledding.com). February makes for great snow and a chance to see the northern lights; otherwise, evenings are given over to slide shows and tales of hard-bitten  journeys far more arduous than yours.
 

Michigan, Climb Superior Ice
"It doesn't matter if you've never climbed ice before," says Bill Thompson, who organized the 25th annual Michigan Ice Fest (February 1-3; $20 for admission, $89 for clinics; www.downwindsports.com). "Just show up at the event, try out all the equipment and clothing, and see if you like it." Take it from us: You will. When water seeps over the 200-foot (61-meter) sandstone bluffs that rise from the shore of Lake Superior in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, "you get phenomenal ice formations: frozen rivers, pillars of ice," says Thompson. After roping up for top-notch instruction, stop by Sydney's Family Restaurant in nearby Munising to cavort with pro climbers (Mike Libecki, Mark Wilford) and refuel with a slice of homemade cherry pie. Scotty's Motel in Munising sits within snowball range of the climbing area ($31; www.munising.org).


Wisconsin, Schuss Iron County
Push off on the Uller Trail—a 19-mile (31-kilometer) route, including two spur loops, from Pence to Webber Lake Park—and you enter a silent, rolling world of hemlock, balsam, and not much else (www.ironcountywi.com/winter.htm). The countryside is criss-crossed with timber wolf tracks and far more white-tailed deer than people. "Skiing the trail is a pristine experience of wilderness solitude," says Brian Maxinoski, a member of the volunteer Penokee Rangers ski club, which maintains and grooms the trails. The skiing is challenging; for a breather try the nearby pistes on the Montreal trail system, a nine-mile network through mining country. The Inn in Montreal is a favorite skiers' haunt ("for skiers by skiers") that offers saunas and substantial morning repasts ($77; www.theinnbedandbreakfast.com).
 

EAST
Maine, Ski Hut to North Woods Hut
Hut-to-hut skiing can evoke images of humping heavy loads and sharing communal space crammed with sopping strangers and their stanky garments. But the Appalachian Mountain Club's three-night camp-to-camp trip in Maine's North Woods suggests a better way ($405; www.outdoors.org/lodging/winterguide.cfm). Your stuff gets transported. Your meals get cooked. You stay in a different private cabin on an isolated pond each night. All you have to do is ski through the great pine woods of the 100-Mile Wilderness (161 kilometer) near Moosehead Lake. The first night's stay is in AMC's Medawisla Wilderness Camp on Second Roach Pond, where seven cabins provide solitude enough to enjoy Thoreau's "tonic of wilderness." After a nine-mile ski (fourteen-kilometer), spend the second night at West Branch Pond Camps, famed for its slow-roasted beef and West Branch Mud (hot cocoa). Seven and a half miles (twelve kilometers) later you'll come upon AMC's Little Lyford Pond Camps, a sporting retreat (replete with sauna) that dates to 1874. They'll leave the kerosene lamp on for ya.
 
Quebec, Skate a River of Ice
Leave it to chilly Quebec to turn a river into a skating rink. Gliding through Joliette (an hour north of Montreal) is so popular that it's spawned an annual celebration: Festi-Glace, this year from February 1 to 11 (free; www.lanaudiere.ca/en). The river is groomed for 5.5 miles (9 kilometers) of skating through the heart of town and beyond, with a parallel course for cross-country skiing and restaurants for noshing all along the way. At festival time you'll find a curious assemblage of lumberjack demonstrations, skating competitions, and puppet theater. La Montagne Coupée, a cozy home base 30 minutes outside of town, has its own 40-mile (64-kilometer) network of ski trails and an in-house spa ($115; www.montagnecoupee.com).
 
South Carolina, Stalk the Swamp Fox
Ask any local about hiking or biking the Swamp Fox Trail in Francis Marion National Forest and they'll talk first about the mosquitoes. They are, ahem, abundant. But not in February, when you can proceed unpestered through boggy bottomlands festooned with bald cypress, wax myrtle, and red bay trees. Plod itch free through uplands of loblolly and longleaf pines—all of which once gave cover to the revolutionary Brit-harasser Francis Marion, aka the Swamp Fox. The route, a segment of the cross-state Palmetto Trail, traces old railroad logging trams (read: flat and fast) for its 42-mile (68-kilometer) length. For a weekend chunk, bite off the six-mile section that heads west from U.S. Highway 17 to Halfway Creek Trail Campground (free; +1 843 887 3257). Hike it or bike it, but watch out for redcoats.







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