12/28-30/22 I went up to Camp Serendipity for three days: Wednesday through Friday.

Highway 2 was closed on Monday and Tuesday, so I had to delay my trip by two days. The road was open and clear on Wednesday, and I arrived at 12:15. The driveway had not been plowed and it looked like about 8 inches of new snow with an icy crust on top. There had been a pretty severe ice storm and it was just now beginning to melt. The temperature was 35 degrees.

I put the truck in 4-wheel drive and just barged in to the driveway over the top of the berm and was able to park straight ahead on top of the icy crust. Stomping the trails was fairly easy because in some places the icy crust supported my weight and in other places it only sagged a couple of inches under my boot. Shoveling the stairs off was more difficult but I made it easier by using two different shovels. I had to use a long-handled square-nose shovel to cut through the ice crust and to do some of the scooping, but when I had soft snow or loose chunks of ice, the big aluminum scoop worked better. Even at that it took 2 hours to get up to the cabin.

After opening the cabin, I hoisted the flag and carried my gear up in two trips. Then at 2:15, I had my lunch, built a fire, and took a nap. I checked the bedroom heater, and it was cold so there was something wrong with it.

On Thursday the temperature outside was 20 degrees when I got up. After practicing the piano, Robert called, and we caught each other up on our activities. I spent some time writing and then I worked on the bedroom heater. After consulting the owner's manual, I located a reset button, pushed it in, and then rebooted the heater and it started working again. That was a relief.

After lunch and a nap, I used the Skilsaw to cut the remainder of that long slab into firewood on the front porch. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon writing.

On Friday morning it was 25 degrees and snowing outside. I practiced the piano, listened to the radio, and then decided to leave early in case there was trouble getting over the pass. I had my lunch, packed up, and left for home at 12:30. It had snowed about a foot overnight, so it took until 1:00 o'clock to dig the truck out and finally get on my way. It was a short but fun week.