12/8-10/15 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way, I stopped and visited with Uncle Charles. He was involved in a group activity when I got there and he didn’t want to leave it to play checkers. So I left after a short visit and proceeded on over the mountains.

It rained heavily all the way over and I was worried about flooding. I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 12:55 and saw that there had been a foot or more of snow earlier that was now being soaked by a downpour. The snow had evidently come in two snowfalls because I could see that Mike had plowed the parking area once, and then afterward, another 10 inches, or so, had fallen and which had not been cleared.

I put the truck in 4wd and barged into the heavy slush in the driveway. The snow was deep enough that I high centered on it and slipped enough that I couldn’t make the turn in one maneuver. I tried backing up for another run, but I could only back up a few feet before the slush piled up behind the tires and stopped me.

The same happened when I tried to go forward. The deep slush compacted into solid ice as soon as the tires pressed it, so I found myself hopelessly stuck. Hopeless, that is without a lot of shoveling.

As I got out of the truck, Dave and Nancy Bartholomew came by and told me about the snowy weather they had had earlier in the week. The temperature had hovered right at 32° pretty much day and night and the snow had turned to heavy rain.

I got my shovel from the back of the truck and started clearing the compact slush away from the tires and I shoveled a path forward. Then I tried again.

I was able to drive as far as I had shoveled, but no further. Since I was parked at the foot of the concrete staircase, I decided to leave the truck parked there and hope that before I left in two days, the driving conditions would be better. Either frozen solid or dried out.

Next I used my aluminum scoop shovel to clear the concrete steps. That was relatively easy because even though the snow was heavy, none of it was frozen. I carried my gear up the steps and in the back door. I decided against postholing my way through the deep slush to turn the water valve off at the creek in the normal way. Instead, I closed the valve in the return pipe in the crawl space. That would give me water pressure in the cabin but the risk was that if it got cold enough, the hose down by the creek could freeze. And, if it did, I probably wouldn’t be able to thaw it out until spring.

After bringing in some firewood, I built a fire in the wood stove. Then I shoveled off the back stoop. I was surprised by what I saw in the crawl space. There was a substantial stream of water running down through the channels and out through the foundation wall. But what was unusual was that instead of the major flow of water coming from the Grid E1 corner where it used to come from, it was now coming from the Grid A1 corner. And it was gushing out of a rather high point in the rock outcrop there. The flow was big enough that it looked to me like I should install a 2-inch pipe to drain it.

When I went in for lunch, I took my pants off and hung them in front of the wood stove. They were soaked from the rain. I had worn a rain jacket but not rain pants.

After lunch, I removed the last of the old plank treads from the front staircase. Even though I still have two more log treads to install, there was just one old temporary plank in place. Then, inside the cabin, I screwed the plywood rectangles to the next tread to be installed.

On Wednesday morning it was 30° outside and it had rained cats and dogs all night. After breakfast, I mounted the tread blank into position and scribed it for the notches. Then before taking a break for lunch, I decided to test to see whether or not the hose down by the creek had frozen. The test was to open the valve in the crawl space. The theory was that if the hose weren’t frozen, then there should be no water pressure in the cabin. But to my dismay, there was still plenty of water pressure. I left the valve in the crawl space open thinking that if there were any flow through the hose at all, the ice might thaw as a result of the water flow and the pressure in the cabin would drop to zero.

While I was in the crawlspace, I noticed that the groundwater pattern had changed. Instead of the Grid A1 corner, the major flow had now shifted to the Grid A2.5 area gushing out from under the workbench. I could only figure that the water had cut a new channel under the rocks. I realized that whatever solution I implement for the problem will have to deal with water oozing out from virtually anywhere down there. At least now I know what I am up against.

After lunch and a nap. I got the chainsaw out and cut the notches in the tread blank. I also used the chainsaw to cut the top and bottom kerfs for the notches in the stringers. But the quarters were too cramped up there to cut out the notches with the chainsaw. Instead I got the Bulldog out with its wood chisel bit, and used it to cut the stringer notches. It worked very well.

The tread fit pretty close on the first test so it didn’t take much work to get it to fit satisfactorily. I had the tread installed and stained by 3:00 PM. I was extremely happy about that. I had been stewing about the fact that the truck was stuck and imagining all sorts of dire scenarios about not being able to get it unstuck. I had also been stewing about what I thought was a frozen hose. The steady rain also had an effect on my mood. But now, finishing the tread well ahead of schedule, I had some time before it got dark to work on the hose and the truck.

First, I got a bucket of gravel from the crawlspace and set it on the back stoop. I planned to start working on the hose and afterward I would come up and get the gravel if I needed it to get the truck unstuck. There was still pressure in the cabin so I figured that the hose hadn’t thawed.

I put on rain pants and a rain jacket and went down to the creek. I was surprised that the hose wasn’t frozen after all. What had happened was that I had evidently forgotten to open the valve at the creek when I left last week. It was cracked just enough to keep from freezing and yet provide me with pressure in the cabin. That was a relief. I didn’t have to do anything.

Next I headed down the roadway to the truck, got the shovel, and dug a pair of tracks in front of the wheels of the truck. Since it still wasn’t freezing I figured that I just might be able to drive ahead without any sand or gravel at all. I got in the truck and sure enough; I put it in gear and drove straight up the tracks I had made. I kept the power on and the truck kept going right over the slushy snow high enough to be able to back down and turn around poised to drive straight out of the driveway. I went in for the night feeling extra happy that everything was working out so well.

On Thursday morning I slept in. I measured carefully for the installation of the last tread. It is unusual in that it needs to be ripped in order to accommodate a big structural header that it will butt up against. I only want to cut it once, so I made the measurements and calculations two or three times. I marked the tread but I will cut it next week. It started snowing shortly before noon so I had my lunch and left for home at 12:20. It snowed heavily all the way up and over the pass but I followed snowplows all the way. It was very slippery but I made it with no problem.