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2008: Winter Storm Visit
to Howard Prairie Lake Resort
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| February 2, 2008: The photo above is about 3 miles from the entrance to Howard Prairie Lake Resort. The county has done a good job of plowing the road down to about 6 inches of packed snow and ice. This is unusual for the 4,500 foot level of the Cascades. At least these last few years, the snow depth has not been this great. This is the road I drive everyday during the resort season. |
| We arrived at the entrance to find it blocked by 3-1/2 feet of snow piled up by the plow. The snow beyond the berm was |
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| only 2 feet deep and dry snow. It's time to try out the chains I bought 3 years ago, I sure hope they fit. I lived at Lake Tahoe for thirteen years so I've seen this amount of snow before. The snow at Lake Tahoe is usually like oatmeal, heavy and very wet. I would not get through this much Tahoe snow with only one set of chains. Since this is light snow |
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| I think we can pull ourselves through the snow. As it turned out, it was tougher going than I had figured. Probably because only the snow on top was light, the rest was heavy and wet. We still inched our |
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way forward pushing snow the whole way. The problem was, we had gravity working for us, we were going down hill. My only hope was that clearing this path going down hill would help us on our return trip up hill. The view to the left is what we saw going into the resort. This is about 2 feet of snow, which should have been no problem but Big Blue struggled with only one set of chains. |
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| When we arrived at the resort restaurant, Jen was there to meet us. The rest of the winter crew was still huddled around the fire place. It was their job to clear the resort road but they have been hunkered down near the fire waiting for the snow to stop. Now they will have to dig out the plow before starting their job. As it turns out, the trip up the hill required several runs, but I did not have to get out to use the shovel I brought with us. |
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You can see the crew has made a trail a few days ago to the plow on the other side of the workshop. The Prairie Belles are lined up and nearly buried in the snow at the edge of the parking lot. The lake is beyond the Prairie Belles. |
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| Jen had emailed us a shopping list for some personal items since she was stuck at the resort. Her best wish was to be on a beach some where with people in swim suits and umbrellas in their drinks. I did my best to find those little drink-paper-umbrellas but had to make do with the spinners you see sticking out of her Coors' lite can. Beside the spinners, I brought her peel-&-stick felt animals, pop cycle sticks and a feather mask. All to keep herself amused during these stormy days. Of course, the toilet paper is a practical gift. |
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The Schooners are buried up to the windows in snow. It's time for the crew to get out here and get the snow off the roof. Click the photo to see the schooners in the summer.
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If you follow the road to the left of the sign, it will take you into the campground where we normally spend our summer season. The laundry room is on the right. The large boat parking lot is to the right of the truck. The photos below show the fish cleaning station on the left and the gas pumps at the entrance to the parking lot. |
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Some place under all this snow is the marina. The telephone poles are the poles which anchor the marina docks and boat slips. You can just see the roof line of the marina and the wind gauge on top of the roof. Click the photo to see a summer view.
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Morgan thought she was in Disneyland. She would run full speed in the truck track then jump as far as she could into the deep snow. The snow was over her head and body. She would then "swim" in the snow, roll, shake off, plunge her nose into the powder, then run back to me, turn around to start all over again. Her ears are up, paws off the ground and a big smile on her face in this photo. Click to enlarge. |
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Morgan is coming up the trail which leads to the restaurant. You can see the large parking lot beyond the truck with the frozen lake beyond the parking lot. Click the photo to enlarge.
The view below is of the marina area from the restaurant. The marina roof is barely viewable under the right tree branches. Click the photo below to see the summer view.
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