The Northstar golf course opened today and I got in nine holes before work.

The course is in great shape. Last year, the lack of any snow until February caused plants and irrigation lines to freeze and the greens and fairways were extremely ragged all year.

This year is the opposite: an early snowpack that insulated the ground, but melted out early, plus some spring rain. The greens are the best I’ve ever seen here.

I picked up Nancy at TTSA to do an afternoon ride on the Sawtooth trail.

It was a cool, windy day, but we didn’t get rained on.

Another night of not much to do.

One of our guys called in sick for graveyard, so I stayed over and worked a double—my first overtime shift since March.

I’ve been getting the bike out to make the rounds at Northstar. I’m always looking for shortcuts through the woods.

Raking the needles out of the beds in back. I’ve already got the front done, still have the side to do.

Doing the evening mid-mountain patrol. There’s practically no snow around. Even the upper mountain has large bare spots.

It’s been raining for several days, which is great considering how little snowpack we have.

Work is very slow with virtually no one around during the shoulder season.

The trails are completely melted out around the house, so I rode to work, trying to get my butt in shape.

We were supposed to get thunderstorms in the afternoon, but it turned into steady rain. Good thing—we’re looking at a dry, burny summer.

We stopped on our way back home to have lunch at the ski area outside of Mt. Shasta City.

You can see the location of the old ski bowl in the middle just above the treeline. It was wiped out in 1978 by an avalanche.