Day 19.6- Straying to Diamond Lake

Friday. Day 6.

Start 8:30a. Lo 30. Stop 2:30p. Hi 40. Miles 14.2. Elev 5200.

I am biased! What’s worse, I didn’t know it!

When I skied to the entrance on hwy 138 this morning, I suddenly became aware that my plan to ski the berm along the side of the road would absolutely not work. The rotary plows shoot the red cinder laden snow over 100 feet from the shoulder! The skins on my skis would be torn up in no time. To avoid the gravel and several drainage ravines, I decided to backtrack north before turning west and then north again to Diamond Lake. That’s when all manner of confusion set in.

Normally, I have a good sense of direction, but on this gray day with clouds so low and heavy that I could not even see the mountains, I began making turns that made no sense on my GPS. I don’t know if my bias is to the left or to the contour, but every time I made a sharp right turn then checked my GPS, my track still appeared straight. Somehow in avoiding all the little trees and the wells of the big trees I kept tending left and straightening out my track.

Several times it got so frustrating that I began exclaiming at the failure of my GPS. Of course, my compass confirmed the accuracy of my GPS and I swallowed my pride and trusted the tech. I wanted to go due north and hit the intersection of 138 and 230 where the nearest entrance to Diamond Lake was, but I ended up a whole mile west. When you compare my actual route with my recommended route you can see a huge difference. My track even has a spot where I was heading south!

The life lessons are ridiculously near the surface on this one. By definition, our biases remain hidden to us until some kind of pain event makes us aware of them. Then we must choose how to deal with our newly discovered weakness. The pain was all my mine on this one, but sometimes my bias causes others pain. May God help us all help each other!

My trip had to stop today at the Diamond Lake lodge (nice place!). The forecast for a one day dusting turned into a three day blizzard. Time to go home and wait!

Nearing the north entrance on a darkening morning

Low snow levels at 5000 feet at Diamond Lake, but this was about to change

Mt. Bailey on the other side of the frozen Diamond Lake