bobble

i got pfizer. i felt extremely fatigued two days later. i couldn't think straight. took time off from work and slept all day. felt a little better next day. my 2nd dose is next week.

@MN Surfer i was out in eden prairie near the defunct Cedar Hills Golf/Ski checking out Cedar Hills Park for ... other reasons. its just up the ways from the original Cedar Hills Golf/Ski hill. the whole area is developed with large houses. going back and forth between google earth and old map archives. i believe the Cedar Hills Golf Course club house was located off Prospect Road what is now Sohm Court. in this map view the location of the clubhouse would be the fourth house from Eden Prairie road. https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8265033,-93.4848019,377m/data=!3m1!1e3 if you go to the Google Earth app, slide the timeline back to 1991 and you can clearly see the golf course. i'm not sure when skiing closed. probably early 1970's. https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8265603,-93.4844586,377m/data=!3m1!1e3 i found a vintage aerial map of the area from December 12 1967. there's a white rectangular area that looks like snow? might even be man-made snow. the club house is at the bottom of this area. there's a faint thin line on right side of this white area that might've been a rope tow? the terrain is somewhat flat when you drive around. not much of a run by itself. maybe this place was just for cross-country skiing? http://geo.lib.umn.edu/Hennepin_County/y1967/BDR-7-207.jpg disclaimer: i am almost always wrong.

imagine being a driver and seeing that guy in rear view mirror? or cuts you off? there is one spot in the video where he almost lost it at 5:26.

this...

just looked at cedar hills again. this one is adjacent to Flying Cloud. it was up the road from Lions Tap. and there's a facebook group but its private. https://www.facebook.com/groups/49645772880/

there might've been two of them Moon Valley Cedar Hills i never knew of there existence. i started looking into defunct ski hills along the Minnesota River Valley. i thought someone told me about one in Bloomington which i probably mis-remembered but it lead me to Moon Valley, and then Cedar Hills. Cedar Hills is directly west of Flying Cloud. it looked like it was just a small ski hill with snow making equipment. now its a small park. https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8296256,-93.4830369,896m/data=!3m1!1e3 Moon Valley is the one that intrigued me the most. My brother lives in Chanhassen and said there used to be a ski hill just across from city of shakopee. He thought it was off of Bluff Creek road or Hesse Farms. https://www.google.com/maps/@44.8149145,-93.5465906,1066m/data=!3m1!1e3 some links: https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2018/01/reflections-vintage-skier/ https://www.ebay.com/itm/1950s-Moon-Valley-Ski-Resort-Drive-In-Shakopee-MN-FULL-30-STRIKE-Matchbook/293330247657?hash=item444bd85fe9:g:OVAAAOSwoahdzT1T scroll through the photos https://www.ci.chanhassen.mn.us/1348/50th-Anniversary

3/7/21 warm day. not sure i'll be riding much longer. for all i know, this could be it. supposed to hit 60's this week. snow has started to turn brown especially on the playa. snowcone conditions. crossroads was rough. olympic was just slightly better. some areas on warners had a surfy feel. https://www.instagram.com/p/CMIBixZAG6l/

i'm getting a "to catch a predator' vibe from that webcam.

3/3/21 around 45F. slushy. no carving... just surf on top of the piles. actually kind of fun. railyard is close. looks like they have a boardercross setup.

3/1/21 conditions were confusing? there was 1-2 inch of new snow but the cord was icy underneath. it must've rained? mostly rode upright. i was chattering the edges a lot. this cracks me up... buck posted a contest of sorts. i blame erik. EUROCARVING HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? "win some swag" Buck Hill Ski & Snowboard Area - Posts | Facebook "tag Buck Hill in your lowest eurocarve shots!"

2/27/21 race to the cup... geebus! crossroads was rutted up quick! so many doneks. CHAIR LIFT RAGE standing in lift line around 10AM. i watch the lifty tell someone to wear their mask. he then slowed the chair while the person put on the mask. when he restarted the chair he yelled "104!" when i slid up to the load area, "what's that count for?" lifty said "its the number of times i've had to tell people to put on their mask. when it gets to 200 i get to kick some ass!" i noticed that there were more people not wearing masks above their nose. saw a skier with no helmet, no hat, no mask cruising down the run. about half hour later i ask the lifty what's the current count. he said he's up to 204. riding up with @BobD. we just got on the chair. just as we cleared the area the lifty started shouting at some kids in the load area... "PUT ON YOUR MASKS!!!" i think he was having fun.

2/26/21 RTTC. course was setup. soft snow under the chair. fat ruts.

by the looks of it, first tracks.

2/25/21 out at lunch. place was overrun with hardbooters on milkrun preparing for RTTC. and then there was karl. warm. soft snow.

2/24/21 out at lunch. looked like someone else was on olympic. there were deep wide ruts. temp is warm. around 38F. snow was soft. no ice. decent for carving. did a couple runs on olympic. stayed on milkrun. there was a course setup on crossroads. youtube found me a snowboard build video series. me not handy enough to attempt such a project. watched all the episodes. the guy who created the videos is a skateboard builder with no experience at snowboard builds but gave it a shot. more of a learning experience. his efforts really made me appreciate established board builders/artisans; e.g. Donek and Coiler. in the 11th episode he tries to press the board. unfortunately, he incorrectly mixed 2-part epoxy. as he was laminating the epoxy was too warm and started setting before he had a chance to lay the core onto bottom sheet. everything ruined. he then tallied up the expenses. he spent $310 in materials not including tooling costs. ouch! you can buy new boards at tent sales for that much. so... he starts over again with building the board with better results. he finishes the board and takes it out. success!

can't right now. i was just curious. i do have a warm spot for that place. i remember giggling down that main run especially on final pitch. i really liked that steep run that's on west edge. can't remember the name.

where do you stay up there?

2/22/21 out at lunch. very warm. above freezing. snow was relatively softer than yesterday but could still hold an edge. very smooth. did not hit any ice. rode Milkrun, Crossroads and Olympic. they were all good.

2/21/21 sunday mornings are usually slow early in the morning. today i was about to leave at 9:30AM. long lift lines. flat light. very hard to see but the snow was really good. milkrun had ski racing. crossroads was somewhat congested. i really liked olympic but the south chair had too long of lines. left around 10:30AM.

2/20/21 early morning. blue bird sky. snow was stiff. pencil thin lines but at the apex of turn the lines grew wide. couple times cord blew out. only managed a few runs on milkrun. there was a course set up. skiers were constantly warming up. i stayed primarily on crossroads. i ventured over to railyard but there were too many kids. main chair lift line was tolerable although i was getting peeved at the racers who ski to the front of the line. or, when they wait for a buddy to ski up to them in the line. met a snowboarder in lift line who expressed interest in alpine. i saw him on the run diving into toe-side turns. in the lift line all i said to him was "you know ryan knapton?". the rider laughed and said he wanted to talk to me at the top of the run. rode separate chairs. at top we talked about gear for several minutes. he knew about donek snowboards. i mentioned alpinesnowboarder.com.

holy shit. that's bad. it usually takes me about 12-15 minutes to walk up the run but when i reach the top i need time to recover.

jesus.. .is that a line for one lift or two? that's far worse than anything i've personally seen. i would call it quits for 1/10 of that photo. i would be tempted to walk up the run. i have walked up a few times last season but they require everyone to wear a mask. no joy.

2/19/21 so... i'm working from home. i am easily distracted. have attention span of a gold fish. working on tough super-duper abstract programming project. at 10:50 AM. i jump onto Buck Hill webcam. see a dark silhouette of hardbooter. "oh. someone from G-Team. snow looks nice. maybe i'll go there over lunch." keep watching... interesting turns... wait... why does that guy look familiar? hardbooter lays out heel-side full extreme carve off the noll. "HOLEEE FNCK!!! ITS ERIK!" duty calls! early lunch break. throw my gear on quick. arrive at hill. get ticket. scan the run. watch chair. don't see erik. "hmmm... maybe it wasn't him. oh well" head to chair. erik comes out of the chalet. yay! the Buck Hill social media guy recorded footage of erik. none of me. i'm just not worthy. however, i did have a moment in the lift corral. at the bottom i'm waiting for erik who was coming down the run with the mr facebook/insta guy. two skiers shout to me in the line "YOU GUYS LOOK GREAT!!! YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE HAVING FUN!!!"

2/17/21 rode in evening. buck got maybe an inch of snow during the day. my board was sticking to the snow. milkrun had the beer league course. the narrow lane next to towers was really rough. i only did a couple runs. crossroads, olympic and warners had courses. railyard was just okay.

i thought about a breathing tube. now i just try to hold my breath.