Every time it dumps more snow up at the property, I get nervous. Lately it's been puking the white stuff with dispatch. Knowing the roof was engineered to 150lbs per square foot is apparently not comforting enough to stay home and relax.
This time I brought along Henry and Meg, neither of whom had been up there in the winter. We outfitted ourselves with snowshoes and poles and a sled we could pull Henry on if he couldn't manage the snowshoes. The drive up was pleasant as usual and considerably less nerve-racking than the last trip up with Dad and Nate. That trip was tainted by a blizzard that left mine and Nate's backside slightly more puckered than before as a result of dads winter driving skills.
When we arrived at the turnout, I hit the dirt road with some speed only to find out that for the first time since we purchased the property, the road had not been plowed. What I thought was a plowed road was just a bunch of snowmobile tracks. Mighty Whitey struggled for a second and then found his pace up the hill making it to the upper parking lot with little trouble. I questioned the wisdom of heading down anything that I would have to drive back up later so we parked at the top and decided to snowshoe the remaining 1/2 mile in.
We pulled Henry in a sled down the semi-packed road until we saw the gate. I strained to see our previous tracks in as following these would be the easiest way in. They were generously buried under 24" of new snow with only a slight depression to give their whereabouts away. Meg broke trail and I followed behind with Henry in tow. We came up over the hill past the doo doo shanty and in plain sight was the bowery, still standing, under a lot of snow, approximately 50-55" on the ground and 30-36" on the bowery roof. I was relieved.
Once the burning question had been answered we strapped Henry's snowshoes on and began to explore. My skepticism of his snowshoeing prowess was entirely unfounded. After adjusting his stride width to match his new appendages he took off wherever we would allow him to go. We even took the time to pack down a path on a hill for him to sled down. He dug the whole thing. You never know how a 3 year old is going to react to these types of situations but he handled it with flying colors.
After playing in the snow a bit we snapped a few pictures for the blog, packed up our stuff and made our way back out. Henry broke trail (well, followed our tracks back to the road) and then jumped in the sled for a tow up the hill.
We made it to the truck without incident and although Henry was a bit cold toward the end, he was a champ for 99% of the trip. What a pretty place. Every time I go up there I am more and more pleased with our decision to purchase and develop this land. I look forward to spring, Memorial Day, and another enjoyable summer in our little neck of the woods.
