Some Pictures for Friends

I was asked by some friends for pictures of Glacier Mountain, Lyman Lake & glacier. I first saw Lyman Glacier 3 years ago, the first year I was here & have seen it every year for the last 3 years. It is very sad to see how small it is now compared to what it was 3 years ago, or what it was like 100 years ago even. These pictures were taken last Oct. when they did the Snotel maintenance. Hope you enjoy these Tommy & Jim.

A New Visitor this morning

As Elaine and I were looking at the weather outside and noticing how warm it was getting, I noticed something outside and as I turned to look I saw a Marten coming back from the snow cave on the side of the house. I tried to get a picture but he saw me and was gone. I went and looked to find him again but only found tracks several of them coming from the creek out from the front pond. It was nice to see him but at the same time means we have to be on guard for our little buddy Peppy, he might not be much competition for a young hungry Marten. Not something I expected to see especially in the morning, last year a biologist for the forest service had set out traps to see if we had any Martens out here in the forest and set out 6 at Trinity and only had one trap with Marten tracks on it so this is really cool. Will just have to keep our eyes open as this is the first time this winter to see him or his tracks and yet today I found 5-6 different places that he has been since Thursday when I was dragging and it was snowing and I never saw any tracks except for a big Buck that always stays here with us.
This next week could be very interesting as the snow level is up to 6000-8000' and temps are supposed to get up in the 40's all week could start to make things here very sloppy and is that the beginning of the end of winter or will we get another big winter blast at the end of the month. Overall this year we've had more snow than last year but only have about 10' showing on the gauge because of the warming and compaction that has been happening all winter. Last year we had 14' on the gauge it just was more spread out when it came and this year came in big dumps. Never a dull moment.
We found our Paradise, hope you find yours too.

Weekend Visitors & Lots of Powder

Friday morning we woke up to some new snow on the ground and colder temps so Elaine & I went out to work on the trails we had been making. We got some new snow over night and just wanted to try to smooth it out since it was frozen and set up better. We even went up to the Bowling alley & did some dragging from there to try to keep as much open as possible, just in case we do get more snow. It's so much easier to do it as it arrives instead of letting it get ahead of you, then it can become somewhat of a problem, besides we like to get out in it and play & enjoy the beauty. We finally had to quit when it got too warm and we were making more of a mess than we wanted to and it was time to eat.

Friday afternoon I heard snowmobiles at the gate and went out to see who it was and saw 3 sleds heading down the road so I went back inside and a little bit later some friends Alan & Shauna showed up at the door, and it was great to see them again, they were part of the group that helped me to get home after Thanksgiving by breaking trail. They had come up for the weekend and were out for a ride with other friends so they came by, a very pleasant surprise, and we had a great visit.

Saturday morning we woke up to near whiteout conditions and about 1' of new powder on the ground so we decided to just stay inside and watch it snow, around 12:30 there was a shout and knock on the house and Jim & Art, friends I met last year were out for a ride making first tracks and enjoying the powder and came out to visit before meeting other friends back out at the Chiwawa river bridge for a fire get together. It was great to see them again and they are also parents of some of the kids, Justin, Ashley & Ryan that also helped me get home Thanksgiving and another time when I was going out to see Elaine and broke down at Chikamin Flats and was walking out to the garage a nice 10 mile walk but was very grateful for the ride out. It is always a pleasure to see friends and I will be forever grateful for all of their help and friendship.
We found our Paradise and so have some of our friends, hope you find yours too.