Feb. 1, 1968
If the man with the butterfly net had been lurking on a recent night at Buck Prairie Road at the crest of the divide he would, without doubt, have pounced with a whoop of glee on the small congregation of Nordic Clubbers gathered there.
At our last club meeting we resolved that when the moon was full we would forgather at the location mentioned and do a moonlight ski tour over the 7-mile route that takes off at this point, follows the Buck Prairie Road through to its junction with the Howard Prairie Road, a few miles from Hyatt Lake, in the country somewhere between Ashland and Klamath Falls.
As we well remembered from our experience on the same trail last April, the route is a nighttime paradise for ski-touring – in the moonlight. At that time the bright full moon shone down from a cloudless sky, lighting up the country and making our route almost as bright as day.
This time also the moon was bright and full – somewhere above the solid cloud cover that hid it from our view. At times the wind blew with minigale force, sometimes giving us a boost, at other times blasting at us head-on. And while we were taking our skis off the car-top racks preparatory to waxing up for our tour, it started to – of all things – rain!
But it takes more than a downpour, a hurricane and a delinquent moon to dampen the enthusiasm of a group of tour-bent Nordic Ski Club members. We just snuggled up into our parkas and went right on with the business at hand – and right then the man with the B.F.N. would have gone into action.
Above the scudding overcast the moon that night must have been fearfully bright, because in spite of the clouds we were able to see the white trail ahead fairly well. The distant view that so thrilled us last year was mostly hidden now, but the nearer scenes held that fairyland quality for us, and it was plainly evident that everyone was enjoying our moonlost tour to the full.
When now and then a sailing skier would unexpectedly plow into a bump or sharp depression in the half-light and take a slushy spill in the wet snow, we could hear a throaty chuckle somewhere up there above the clouds and knew that the man in the moon was getting a big kick out of the trick he’d played on us. But the joke was really on him because the shadowy, slightly more difficult conditions encountered on the tour made the trip all the more challenging. Such an out-of-the-ordinary experience often adds to the over-all value of the program by contributing a bit of exotic and delightful seasoning to our memory mulligan.
A dozen of us made the nighttime ski tour, including several women and one budding ski champ, 7-year-old Billy Pruitt, whose dad was skipper of the tour. Meanwhile others of the group moved our transportation around to the Howard Prairie end of the run, from where we were later taken several miles farther along the Hyatt Lake road to add the finishing touch to our thrilling adventure in the Castle of Howard Prairie Wood.
The Castle is a fantastic private log lodge, whose great living room was designed for the restful, cheerful comfort of a sizeable group of guests. The walls are decorated with animal trophies; and appropriate furnishings, including an abundance of comfortable furniture, making this forest lodge a night ski party’s dream.
Several logs were crackling cheerily in the fireplace when we came trooping in. This massive marvel of stonework, the huge chimney with its out-sized fireplace that could quite comfortably accommodate a Volkswagen, garnished with half a dozen Hondas, almost rounds out the picture of a near-perfect spot for an apre-ski rendezvous.
But that was not all by any means. The ultra-climax of the event took place in a well-equipped little room adjoining the parlor – the kitchen. There, bubbling merrily away on the gas range, were two big kettles of chili. After a lengthy ski tour there is nothing quite like a few generous helpings of hot chili, crackers, cake, hot coffee, and chocolate to make you feel that this must be what the man in the song hoped to find at the end of the rainbow.
And when I reached home at 3 o’clock next morning I felt the way Winkum, Blinkum, and Nod must have felt when they returned from their adventure in the wooden shoe – happy, sleepy, and with the feeling that I’d just enjoyed an experience worth more than the rainbow’s pot of gold.
