Mike wanted to take the whole family went up into the mountains to play in the snow this winter. It's been seven or eight years since we've done that. He had the last two weeks of the year off so the boys put their heads and work schedules together and we went up on 30 December. There had been a good snowfall the evening and night before so the snow was fresh, dry, untraveled, and about eighteen inches deep. We stopped at about 3400ft elevation at, literally, a wide spot in the road where it forked. We had come to a stop trying to read the snow-dusted sign and couldn't get going again without putting the chains on.
Well, we did go, just not the direction we wanted. Every time Mike gave it a little gas, we slid sideways a little closer to the edge of the road. Cameron was on that side of the pickup and kept saying, "Dad, should we put the chains on?" with a little more agitation each time as he saw the edge coming closer and closer. Mike is very competent driving in the snow and knew exactly what he was doing but I think he was trying to get a bit of a rise out of us, too.
He put the chains on, got himself out of the hole and decided this was as good a place as any to stop. Out came the snowshoes, skis, sleds, snowboard, table, chairs, pop-up shade, propane stove, lunch, and drinks. Mike drove up and down a good stretch of road to make a decent ski/sled run.
Richelle crouched behind Nick's truck, putting on the snowshoes the boys made when they were in Boy Scouts.
.jpg)
Modeling the snowshoes. I didn't get a picture of her hurrying to catch up with Nick and doing a face-plant.
Serena, Cameron, Jenn, and Richelle molding the first two layers of the snow-....um....something.
Mike getting involved in shaping the head. Nick is on the right.
.jpg)
The final product. I think they decided it was a dinosaur of some sort. Later, they added sticks for arms and short pieces of cedar branches for antlers. The decorations are broccoli and carrots from lunch.
Mike took a few turns on the sled and even went one more time so I could get a picture of him. Here, he's waiting for Richelle and Cameron to finish their run.
The "wide spot" in the road. The main road comes up from the left, I'm standing on the road to Hemlock Lake, and the road over the ridge to Highway 138 is to the right.
Cameron and Serena. For some unknown reason, I didn't get one of Nick and Jenn.
Short, steep, and oh! so scary. Richelle screamed every time she slid down. As everyone knows, the more you slide on a spot the faster it gets. By the time we left, Richelle was flying down the cut bank and the dip from the snow-filled ditch launched her into the middle of the road.
This is what a Pacific Northwest logging road looks like in winter at 4,000 ft elevation. This really is a road! The snow was about two and a half feet deep with spots where it was maybe three feet deep. (I just asked Mike and that's what he told me.) Deep enough that we were plowing it with our bumper and grill and throwing snow up over the hood, windshield, and pick-up. Jenn said they watched it blow over the entire truck.
