Royal Gorge perimeter - long tour California

I skied the perimeter of the Royal Gorge cross country ski resort
(www.royalgorge.com). It was a great tour, and I'm very grateful to Mark
Nadell (and Bob) for describing it on this newsgroup. If you can handle the
distance and the steep hills, it must be one of the best long-distance
groomed-track tours in the world.

The perimeter tour has some fine views, and the trails have interesting
designs. It offers a good sense of visiting different places and different
trails along the way, so you feel a new accomplishment every few minutes,
not just at the end of it all.

I found it very hilly -- tougher hills than any other groomed-track ski tour
I've done anywhere. A big part of my success was in pacing myself up the
hills, even stopping to rest several times. I'd say the Lake Placid Loppet
50K or the Gold Rush 50K courses were just warmup exercises compared to
hills of the Perimeter tour.

But I'm just a visitor from the East coast skiing at Royal Gorge for the
second day of my life, so better to listen to the experienced Tahoe locals,
who I hope will correct any misleading statements in this note.

Length and Vertical -- If you have to ask, you shouldn't be doing it. Just
eyeballing it next to the Gold Rush 50K map, I figure it must be a lot more
than 50 km. It took me between 6 and 7 hours to skate it, including three
substantial food+rest breaks.

Route -- fairly obvious from the Royal Gorge resort trail map, but see also
a separate post on the details.

Food + Drink -- There are a couple of lodges serving food, and several
warming shelters where you can melt snow to make water. But there are long,
long distances between the food lodges, so I was very glad I carried my own
food and drink. (And follow _all_ the instructions for starting the
water-melting stoves in the warming huts. Fortunately a couple from San
Diego found me at the Whitneys / Point Mariah shelter and showed me the key
step I was missing).

Sour Note -- Unfortunately my certificate and pin for completing the
Perimeter are on hold. Because I did not ski the Bon Appetite trail. I
claim that it wasn't on the official route description, and anyway my skiing
Thor's and Swan Dive at the finish should make up for it. But I must wait
for the April meeting of the Far West Awards & Certification committee :-)

Warning -- Some of the hills on this tour are very very steep going down.
Some require expert downhill skiing skills even in good snow conditions. It
wouldn't surprise if they could get dangerous in bad conditions or for
someone with anything less than expert skills and judgment.

Ken