At the end of the day, the perfectly pitched path may be the best thing about the Soapstone Basin Road. At least when it comes to cross country skiing.
My husband and I and some friends skied the road to Soapstone Basin, in the Uinta Mountains, on a cold weekend in early January. The day was sunny. The temperature got as high as 14 degrees. But by midafternoon, shadows covered the slopes. Then it grew really cold.
It was not the kind of weather that invited a picnic in the snow. We pretty much kept moving, from the moment we got out of the car in the parking lot for Forest Road 37. (Also known as the Soapstone Basin Road, it can be found about 15 miles past Kamas on the Mirror Lake Highway.) We skied past the cabins of the YWCA Camp Rogers and up along the snowpacked byways, enjoying the views, waving to snowmobilers, but never pausing long enough to start freezing. We kept moving for two miles, until we got to the unmarked turnoff for Forest Road 414.
Then we stood in the sunshine and dug out some cheese and crackers and ate as fast as we could before heading along 414 for a mile or so. There were no snowmobiles on the somewhat narrow 414. We smelled the pines and reveled in the silence, even as we kept skiing and kept warm.
Going up, the roads seemed steep enough that we thought we'd be skiing down without effort. But it turned out that the roads weren't as steep as they appeared. Coming back, we had to kick and glide and kick again.
We were thankful, though. The effort kept our body temperatures up.
My husband told me we had skied on the Soapstone Basin Road before, 20 years ago, on a Wasatch Mountain Club trip. I didn't recall it, not until we started skiing down.
Then I remembered. Whether it is because my husband weighs more than I do, or because his skis have better wax, he goes faster than I do on this road.
As he glided next to me, kicking occasionally compared to my constant efforts, I remembered how, 20 years ago, I had asked him for a tow and he gave it to me. He skied ahead and stuck one pole back and I held on and he went as fast as he could and I just rested.
He's a nice man. He towed me again this past weekend, every time I asked.
In addition, just as I had done 20 years ago, I requested that he make the sound of a motorboat while he towed me — so that I could pretend I was water-skiing. And he did. Exactly as he had done before.
So OK, maybe the fact that we have a history of silliness on this road colors our opinion of it. Maybe it is not one of the best trails in the Uintas.
Still, no one can deny there are some pretty views to be enjoyed through the trees. From the Soapstone road and Road 414 you can see the canyon below and the cliffs across the valley. Probably even sophisticated skiers could appreciate these roads and find joy in a slope that requires a bit of work on the downhill — especially on a cold winter's day.
E-mail: susan@desnews.com