The last few winters in this resort town have been horrific. Very little snow if any at all. Our once glorious evergreens are brown and rotting; the ones that survived the wildfire that raged through over 10,000 acres in June, anyway. It’s been so sad to see the ski slopes brown even in mid winter and not white, in the background as I drive through town. It feels like locals are just sad, de
pressed about the drought and the lack of rain and snow
All any one wants to talk about is the El Nino to come this winter and you can hear the hope in our voices as we discuss the R word.
Rain.
Today as I drove towards the very best hiking trails on the other end of town the ski resorts were a blinding white against a bright blue sky! I can’t remember the last time in the first week of November when the resorts were blowing snow!
It’s still autumn up here at over six thousand feet, that is for sure. The maples are a fiery red and our aspen trees are bright yellow against the back drop of the white mountains beyond.
This morning felt like a December morning even though we are still weeks and weeks from Christmas. As I sat in my Subaru, heating up the engine, a very excited little pup whimpering in the back seat, my Subi said it was twenty-eight degrees outside at ten a.m. By the time we hit the trails a few minutes later it had not heated up, even a bit. It took us forty-five minutes of hiking at a good pace up a very steep trail before I stopped feeling the cold wind through my sweat pants. I was wrapped in layer over layer, plus a scarf, winter hat and one glove (Who knows where the other one went) and I was still cold.
But I wouldn’t change this cold snowy morning for anything!
Comments
Our winter last year was horrible too (Seattle). We’ve had a descent amount of snow so far but that is how it started last year… and then the rain came and washed a lot of it away. I’m trying to keep a positive attitude this year because I really want to get some good snowshoe trips in with my pups.
Is there snow yet???
We are jealous! We haven’t had snow yet and that stupid El Nino thing has kept November way too warm. Finally we are cooling down and may get snow in a few days. Snow and cold is so fun to hike around in.