Snow!

The NWS was right on with today's forecast. Snow and wind and lots of it. It started snowing about 8 this morning and kept on all day. There are about 5-6 inches I think - it's blowing all around so it's hard to know how much. The wind was the real issue today though, gusting up to 50 mph - and they were big gusts, more like 3-5 min sustained winds. The temps started in the low 30s and fell to 19 through the day, with wind chill values between 10 and 0.

Here's the view from my room this morning:


The lodge is built "motel" style with each room having a door to the outside. This is very poor design on a day like today. You can't go anywhere in the lodge without going outside. Also the rest of the lodge is very poorly designed. There are no common areas where one can go to read or hang out and see outside. The main dining room does offer a view, however they were closed for lunch today in prep for the big New Years Eve bash tonight.


The picture above was taken at the same place where I took the sunset picture last night. It looked this way most of the day. It would clear up a bit as the snow showers moved through, but just as quickly it would look like this again. The building on the left is the ice skating pavilion - it's basically a pole barn.

Just beyond where I took the picture is a trail head - I'd looked at a trail map and saw that there were a number of shortish trails in this area and decided the plan for today was to explore all these trails, after all there's no such thing as bad weather, only insufficient gear right? I had all that one needed for winter hiking - pink Helly Hansen polypropylene long underwear, mismatched REI synthetic long underwear, fleece pants, fleece vest, fleece jacket, gore-tex outer wear, synthetic sock lines, synthetic sock and gore-tex lined boots, polypropylene glove liners, thick fleece lined waterproof ski gloves - I was more than prepared!

I hiked out the Deer Run Trail and came back the Abe Run Trail - it took about 2 hours and when I got back I was wiped - my cheeks were windburned, I was hot (I'd even had to unzip a few layers to cool off), and hungry. I figured I'd walked at least 4 miles. Turns out it was only maybe 3 - I think the snow/cold adds a mile! :) The wind was bearable in the woods - I hardly felt it, however once I got out in the open the wind was brutal!

Here are few pictures from my walk.....

I think the mountain in the distance, the one on the right, is where the ski area is. Apparently there were folks skiing today - the shuttle bus was going and there were people walking around in ski boots - I can't imagine! In this picture you can also see the road - there were lots of cars going in and out - the road was covered with packed snow.

There were lots of deer in the woods - most barely noticed me or cared that I was there. I did not use any zoom to take this picture - the deer even posed for me. Last night there were a lot of deer in the woods by my room and some people a few rooms down were feeding them cereal! I wonder what part of "don't feed wildlife" is confusing?

This is what most of the trail looked like - walking it in the snow was fun, probably wouldn't have been as fun without the snow!

I got back to the lodge about 12:00 and was headed to have lunch but as soon as I got into the lodge I started sweating and I ended up going back to my room to take off some layers. When I got back I discovered the dining room was closed so I had to eat lunch in the "snack bar". I was planning on going to the snack bar for dinner since dinner in the dining room was part of the New Years Eve Bash and cost $50! I knew the food would be mediocre at best so I didn't want to pay that much for it! The dining options leave a lot to be desired around here.

After lunch I decided I'd hang out and finish my book - Winter Study by Nevada Barr, the perfect book for a snowy day! I ended up going back to my room because there was no place to sit and read and watch it snow.

When I finished my book I thought I'd go ice skating so I loaded up all my layers and headed out. I'd also decided that while I was over at the lodge I'd go for a swim at the indoor pool so I put my bathing suit in my backpack.

It was entirely too cold to ice skate. The wind was whipping something fierce and the temps had dropped considerably from this morning. I headed in and hit the "Beech Club". I sat in the hot tub for about 15 mins - there wasn't much else to do, the "lap pool" really wasn't (it was about 15 yards too short to really swim laps) and there were a lot of kids playing around. So I headed back to my room for a shower. I'd tried to be careful not to get my hair wet because I knew I had to go outside to get back to my room, however the bottom got wet and it was frozen by the time I got back to my room.

About 5:30 I headed over to the snack bar to get dinner - I got a personal pizza - it was ok, but it had no sauce! Onions, green papers, cheese, and decent crust but no sauce! Did I mention that the food leaves a lot to be desired? I'm so glad I brought snacks!

I'd hoped to go snow tubing again, but it's way to cold and windy to even consider going down a hill at 30mph! So I'm hanging out in my room watching TV and maybe getting in another book read for 2008!

Hopefully the weather forecast is correct for tomorrow also and things will clear up! It's still going to be cold - highs in the 20s - but if the wind goes away and the sun comes out it will be bearable! I'm hoping to go back over to Blackwater Falls and I found a local pizza joint that looks good for lunch then after lunch I'll head back home!