another snowfall

After shoveling as much as we did the previous two days, we woke up Wednesday morning and it was snowing again. This is looking out the back door over the proch. That drift is about 5-6 high and covers the firepit we use to roast smors and hotdogs.

Torrin digging out

Torrin heard me talking to some guests planning on coming this week on the phone and overheard that they had wives and one with an 18 month old baby. He immediately went out and started shoveling a path along the road for them to make the last 150 yards to the cabin through the drifts. He spent a little over two hours digging this. Bless his heart. Later I used this path on the road to get one wheel of the pickup in and enough traction to drive up to the cabin. I tried breaking down as much of the drift I could to help the guests but worry that the melting snow will make for pretty muddy conditions.

Path shoveled in front yard

Torrin and I shoveled out paths through drifts in the front yard and while he thought it was high adventure fun, I kept thinking of the stories I read each year where some geezer that thinks he is in shape dies of a heart attack shoveling snow. Susie is shown here demonstrating the snow is pretty deep. She didn't shovel a lick and in fact spent the first two days there reading a couple different books and didn't feel guilty in the least. She rarely sleeps in and never has just "nothing to do" so with a fire going in the fireplace she drank hot chocolate and read for two solid days.

The snow in the back yard was so deep it exceeded the height of the porch. The firepit is about 5-6 feet below the drift you see on the left of this photo. Some of the snow is what we shoveled off the deck itself but before we started the snow drift was above the deck itself. Warm weather helped but this side of the property is in the shade and was not melting near as fast as the front yard. The locals say this is the latest heaviest snowfall in these parts they can remember. The days were warm with the nights dropping to freezing one night when it snowed again and around freezing the other nights.

snow on the lane

This is after two days of warm weather in which a lot of the snow was melted. Here however is the truck nearly high centered on the middle section of snow.

Snowed in

On Monday 15 2010, Susie, Torrin and I headed for the cabin to get it ready for the season. we anticipated some snow but not the amount we encountered. The Sand Flats road up the mountain was fine with a few spots with snow but nothing to speak of as the county had plowed the road sometime previous. At the lane into the cabin however, the only tire marks we saw were of our friend and caretaker Farland's pickup. We had spoken with her earlier in the week and she told us that she had been snowbound for a few days and took advantage of the late season snowfall to cross country ski all around the mesa. Later she pointed out her ski tracks where she skiid off a ledge at Cougar canyon. (Impressive) She baby sat gold medalist Bill Demong, Nordic Combined, when he was a child and was justifiably proud as she pointed out her tracks off some ledges. This photo shows the effort Torrin and I put forth in digging us out of the snow enough to put on chains. We arrived Monday night and made it to within 150 yards from the cabin via the road but walked in carrying our stuff 100 yards off the road and straight in. The temperture was in the 4os that night so we tramped through snowdrifts up to my hips carrying our stuff. Tuesday Torrin and I spent the day getting the pickup chained and turned around. All day Tuesday the melt was on because temps went to the 60s. The parts where we had cleared snow were now bogs of mud. Left the chains on to make sure we could navigate through if we need to. We decided we didn't need to go anywhere and remained at the cabin, woke up Wednesday morning to fresh falling snow. We re-shoveled pathways and Torrin declared he liked to dig so he was off and at it.

sunset at the castle valley overlook near moab utah

Along the Potash road highway near the river and petroglyphs, the sun shining on the river trees contrasted nicely with the shadowed rest stop. The play of light along the cliffs and river make for some tremendous shots. This particular photo was taken in November of 2009 and trees above the valley floor were pretty much bare but along the low lands fall colors still ruled the day. A world away from electronic games and devices is good for the spirit within each of us.