After getting into the “just zone out and try to be in the present” mode of putting together LEGO sets, I ran across a puzzle I had purchased years ago in Mammoth Mountain, CA. I’d never sat down to put it together, but since the box was staring at me for the entire holiday season (due to come closet cleaning), I cracked the box on January 1, 2020.

It’s a ~500 piece puzzle of a Mammoth Mountain trail map. It look me a few evenings to complete…I finished it on January 5. Because I am fascinated by ski resort trail maps, and I’m very familiar with Mammoth’s map in particular, I figured this would be fun and not take more than a day or two. Well, it was fun but I also learned a few things about puzzles - and Mammoth. Some of the challenges were differences in the puzzle’s border size versus the border size on the box art (puzzle boxes lie!), and the fact that some (not many) parts needed 3 pieces to actually lock into place. Oh and I didn’t realize that this wasn’t a relatively current trail map. Maybe there was a chair 26 near chair 1 at some point but it certainly didn’t ring a bell for me.