Fun & Fitness over 50

I included quite a bit of detail last post about my day at Plattekill with descriptions of individual runs and trails complete with highlighted trail maps.
I realize that most of you won't really care about this even and if you have skied Plattekill before.
More and more I have looked at my posts as a personal diary of my outdoor and fitness activity only ... public.
A contradiction perhaps. A blog is a convenient way to make these entries and by default, it is public. Occasionally, people have indicated an interest so I acknowledge that possibility and I am delighted when that is the case. So don't get me wrong. I DO care that you may be reading this. Else, why would I write it?
In these particular posts, however, I primarily want to create a record for the benefit of my own memory so I can savor the fleeting experience during the long, hot and humid dog days of July and August or when I'm sick and inactive or unable to get outdoors because of other pressing commitments.
All this to say ... "get ready, here he goes again".
I left out a few trails I wanted to mention yesterday. :-)

"Buckle Up" and "Bailout"
Perry and I took the trail "Buckle Up" from the top of the south peak. It is listed as blue intermediate but is primarily flat. It could be a green except that it leads into hairier stuff. First turn off it is "Bail Out". Which I took. And I did. Bail out, that is.
Perry continued past Bail Out to "Block Buster" an expert trail that looked too steep for me. I mean, I think I could have done it but it would have sapped too much of the little capacity I had remaining in my quads!
As it was, "Bail Out" was no picnic; narrow, almost like a cross country ski trail although I would even less like to attempt it on XC skis because of it's steep and winding nature. I bailed on the switch back that you see indicated by the black circle. Wasn't going fast. Sat down basically but it was so steep that I wound up turning head down on my back in spite of my efforts not to and kept sliding to point that I was concerned that I would go over the drop off at the side of the turn. I got ready to jab my poles into the snow below my head if that seemed to be the case but i stopped in time. It was sort of fun but such a narrow trail doesn't give you a lot of options. Sort of a precursor to tree skiing I suppose.

"Sundown and Shredded Mozzarella"
I skied the trails "Sundown" and then "Shredded Mozzarella" quite a bit. Sundown starts at the top of the south peak, has a switchback 2/3 of the way down and then intersects with "The Face" and "Bail Out" and continues on to "Shredded Mozzarella".
This is usually a good, moderate intermediate run although it can have it's rough spots. Portions of "Sundown" before the switchback got kind of scratchy especially later in the day when the packed powder got skied off. The part after the switchback for some reason always stays in good condition even last year on the "bitter end" last day of skiing when very few trails were still serviceable. Then it tends to get rough again around the last curve on "Shredded Mozzarella" again mostly later in the day. I wonder if that's how it got it's name although I would say it's more like FROZEN shredded mozzarella!

BTW, click on the images of the trail maps for a bigger, clearer view.