1/13-15/22 I went up to Camp Serendipity for three days: Thursday through Saturday.

After being closed for about a week, Highway 2 opened up just before I got there shortly after 10:00. The road was in excellent shape all the way over and there was virtually no traffic. I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 11:30.

There was a huge amount of new snow and the entrance to my driveway was plowed enough for about three vehicles. The rest of it was not plowed. After parking the truck, I put on my snowshoes to see how the deep snow behaved. It was extremely heavy and wet, but I could walk on it OK with snowshoes. I walked up to the foot of the concrete stairs but there was so much heavy snow on the steps I decided it wouldn't be worth the effort to shovel it. Instead, I walked up to the cabin via the hairpin turn with my scoop shovel and didn't have much trouble making a track.

The temperature inside the cabin was 45 degrees. I hadn't left any auxiliary heaters on and trusted that the Convectair was going to work while I was gone, but it evidently did not.

Again, the smoke alarms were screaming and beeping. I removed the batteries and unplugged the two in the loft and that stopped them. It seems like they can't take the cold. I started a fire in the stove and then went back out and brought my gear up in three more trips wearing snowshoes on each trip. The temperature outside was 30 degrees, and it was a beautiful sunny day. Looking out the window I could see another big snow load on top of the privy but I couldn't see the woodshed so I suspected it had collapsed.

After lunch and a nap, I scrubbed the bathroom sink using baking soda which worked pretty well. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing the piano.

On Friday the temperature outside was 25 degrees, and it was another clear day. To my surprise, the big Convectair heater ran all night so it was cozy and warm when I got up in the morning. After practicing the piano, I went out and split and stacked a bunch of firewood. Then I snowshoed up to the woodshed to take a look and sure enough it had collapsed.

It looked like it had just tipped over to the West without breaking any structural members that I could see. And it left the firewood exposed so that I can easily drag it out without digging through too much snow. That was a nice development.

Next, I walked over to the privy and walked up the snowbank in my snowshoes. I was able to shovel off the privy roof and walk right up on it with my snow shoes on. I cleared the roof and then on my way back to the cabin, I cleared the snow off the mixer. The snow was so deep the mixer was hard to find but I found it. I tried to make a trail toward the flagpole but when I got to the steep part, I tried to uncover the handrail. I dug through the deep snow and found the top of the post that holds the handrail but the rail itself was buried deep in the snow and was out of reach. I decided not to try going any further and went back to the cabin.

After lunch and a nap, I decided to retrieve as much firewood from the woodshed that I could and get it under the cover of the eaves. For that I needed my stout rope that I use to drag firewood rounds. At the moment that rope was tied up, literally, holding the OSB against the newel post at the front porch. I went out to see how easy it would be to retrieve the rope and I was able to easily untie the clove hitch holding it to the post. Then I was able to slip the rope through the eye in the end. That left the rope looped under the OSB which was buried in the snow.

I pulled on the end of the rope and found that it was almost possible for me to pull it out but not quite. So, I went up to the porch crane, powered it on, freewheeled the hook down to the rope, and used the crane to pull the rope out from under the OSB. It worked super slick and just took a minute or two.

Back in the cabin I used baking soda again to scrub out the tub. I noticed that the big heater quit working again but it could be that the ambient temperature in the cabin was too high. Next, I put the batteries back in the smoke alarms and plugged them back in. I just put the same batteries back in and the smoke alarms seemed to work OK without screaming.

On Saturday morning the temperature outside was 26 degrees. The big heater ran fine all night, and it was warm when I got up. After breakfast, I practiced the piano and then packed up to leave for home. I used snowshoes to carry my gear back down to the truck in two trips and was on the road by 11:00 o'clock. It was a short week, but I learned a lot, and it was fun.