Saturday Stories. #4

Hello everyone! It is another cloudy day here, but mild once again with a temperature of 25F (-4C). It looks like we will have a very nice week coming up with mild temperatures. Years ago I used to enjoy snowshoeing, it was a great winter activity. So, there was a spot I wanted to check out and see if it would be worthwhile to go there in the spring and check around more thoroughly. 

Besides, it would be a fun snowshoe hike. So I got everything ready and drove off to the area. But first I decided to stop in at my favorite restaurant for breakfast. Krissy asked me what I was up to on such a cold day. Actually, it was only -10F (-23C), so not really cold, kind of a nice winter day I thought. I told her what I was planning. 

These pictures are not from our snowshoe hike but are all from the path to the river which I talk about a lot.

I knew she did not have snowshoes so she would not be able to come along this time. She just looked at me and said “no”. She said it would be too dangerous for me to go alone on a cold day and for such a long hike. She had no sense of adventure sometimes. She disappeared into the back and brought out my breakfast after a short time, plus for herself too. 

Then she said something about coming with me. I said no, it is too dangerous. Then she mentioned pouring my coffee on my head. Not quite sure what she meant by that. ”You need to have snowshoes,” I said, “the snow will be too deep for walking.” She disappeared again and returned with snowshoes. 

Apparently she had bought them a couple weeks prior to this and she had been practicing with them, even in very deep snow. Hard to argue now, so we drove to the spot where I could park my car off the road and away we went through the pines. It was quite easy going under the pines, there was not much for undergrowth to deal with and the snow was about 3 feet deep (close to a meter). 

I went first to break trail which made it easier for Krissy, but she was doing very well, all her practicing has paid off. After about 45 minutes we stopped for a break. There was a large pine tree that had fallen, so we could sit on that to rest. ”How much farther is it?” she asked. ”Not quite sure,” I replied, “it depends on if we are going in the right direction, or not.” She looked at me. ”I’m sure we are going in the right direction though,” I said reassuringly. 

“We better be or you are in big trouble,” she said. Not quite sure what she meant by that. We continued our snowshoe hike. I must admit, after another 25 minutes I was beginning to wonder if we were going in the right direction. We should be there by now. I probably should have brought my compass, but it didn’t seem like it would be very far. We kept going, and after another 15 minutes we stopped and I checked around with my binoculars. 

Looking downhill from us I could see a house, or really, the remains of one. Down we went and sure enough there was an old log cabin. The roof was still on it, though it did have a lot of snow covering it. But, I figured it should be safe enough, so in we went. It was about 15 feet wide and 24 feet long and had just two rooms, the kitchen and bedroom. 

There was an old wood burning cook stove, an old table with two chairs and a bench, plus a large cabinet. The furniture had certainly seen better days. There were a couple of bird nests on top of the cabinet, likely from Phoebes. The bedroom had two metal frame beds, a dresser and a wood trunk. The dresser and trunk looked to be homemade and not very well made, but it must have done the job for someone. 

All the windows were broken though it still had a door which was open when we got there. Made us wonder what they were doing back in the middle of nowhere. At least we had a nice place to eat our lunch. I will continue this story next time. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and God bless! 

Steve and Muffin. 

©2024 Steve McLeod.