In the north country for a couple of days

I made my way up to the Bolt Hole today.

The 240 mile drive was uneventful and I enjoyed a couple of Blues Brothers CDs and Rush Limbaugh on the radio. After picking up a few groceries and refueling the truck, I headed beyond the Blue Line and to the Bolt Hole. I arrived just around 2:30 PM and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could drive all the way up to the cabin from the gate thanks to a buddy of Marks who did the snow blowing for our places. Where the snow thrower had done its job, all the snow was gone and the grass was exposed. Where it hadn’t been used there was from 4 to 8 inches of hard, crusted snow/ice. The temperature when I drove up was 39 degrees but as the sun sank in the west-southwest, it dropped quickly. The weather guys predict some rain for this evening and tomorrow morning but I’m wondering if it won’t be snow at the cabin.
Cleared driveway to the cabin.

Years past, I would have had to park here and drag everything to the cabin via sled.
Path to the garage.

A cleared path to the garage will make it easier for me to get to the workshop so I can do some chores and get the ladder to clear the wood shed roof.

Even with a clear drive to the door, there was still some digging to do. The snow and ice that falls from the roof piles up quite deeply in front of the door. Instead of three steps up, there’s usually one LARGE step down to get into the cabin. I had to use a wood splitting maul and a regular shovel to clear a safe passage. (The snow shovel in the photo wouldn’t break the ice crust without breaking itself.)

Yeah, it sure is nice to be able to drive all the way to the front door instead of having to park waaaaaay back there by the gate.

Another thing I found pleasing was that the snow on the roof of the cabin and the garage had pretty much slid off with only a small area f the garage still harboring some icy snow and a drift on the back side of the cabin over the woodshed where there always is some accumulation. I’ve been up there when it could be measured in feet so the relatively small amount that’s up there makes me happy. I’ll still pull out the ladder and see if I can clear even more off tomorrow afternoon.