"A man has got to know his limitations"

The skiing for the last few days has been fantastic, nice mix of snowmobile and back country trails. Not trying to do too much, thus the title of this chapter, has a lot to do with the enjoyment of the trail.

The end of section 9 and section 10 gave me a clue that I'd be going through deep snow and mostly unbroken trail. Thus, I planned to bail out of section 11 on Old Plymouth Rd unless I got lucky. No luck, and I had to bail out leaving a small section for another day. 

I stayed with Taffy and Hull Maynard at their High Pastures B&B - they treated me like family. Great food and conversation. Hull is a former VT state senator and Taffy a former school teacher and coach. They took great interest in my journey.

Per Sam Bartlett's suggestion, I broke section 12 into 2 days. I started out on Tin Shanty and somehow missed the trail and  found myself way off course. I circled back and found the trail and decided it was impassible for a single skier (snow depth). Luckily, the old CT route was in my book and follows a snowmobile track - I took it. Later on I discovered I wasn't the only one who made that decision, I saw old tracks coming southbound, but they never exited northbound. 

I'm at the Inn at Long Trail, a popular junction with the Appalacian and Long (& Catamount) Trails. Okey at reception has befriended me. He showed me a satellite locator device "spot" that I probably should be using in case I'm immobilized. I showed him the animal tracks I've come across, we reckon the unknown track I posted is from a jack rabbit.

I saw lots of fresh bobcat tracks today, but no bobcats😞. I did see a ruffed grouse yesterday, what a racket they make on take-off.