(Note: this post was drafted on April 12th, a nice day. We're in the midst of another storm as I write today)
Back in Moose Crossing-- finally. There have been interruptions attributable to weather, provisioning, and -- alas -- the IRS. We have allegedly entered springtime in the Snowy Range and the weather continues its pattern of setting us up for one cruel joke after another. As we work through the alternating fronts and unusually warm intervening days we also work through our larder and liquor cabinet. Hence the provisioning bit. As for the IRS, well, that's a seasonal irritant on par with the aforementioned cruel joke of spring. How on earth can this government agency call itself a "service?" (I won't belabor this point -- never know who's reading this blog)
Today the weather -- what I can see of it -- is quite nice. We're approaching fifty degrees, the breeze is moderate, and the sky is pastel blue interrupted only by benign-looking clouds. What I can see of that sky is constrained by the snow bank that continues to dominate the large window beyond my writing desk. This obstruction, first mentioned in my March 10th post, continues to be refreshed by the frequent storms typical in April and May. If I don't scale the heights, snow shovel in hand, after each cold front the the view that inspires becomes the sight that depresses. I'm nowhere near advanced enough in Zen to find a mindful-in-the-moment state in all that snow staring back at me. Maybe that will come later. For now, I attack the pile resting as needed by comfortably sitting on the roof to survey my progress and the view.
What we need are more fifty degree days and far fewer snow-laden cold fronts. What we want, however, is precisely what the residents of the North Platte Valley dread. The snow level in the North Barrett Creek drainage (our neighborhood) is at 158 percent of normal. That translates to over 100 inches of packed snow which, when melted, becomes 33 inches of water. The story is the same in the other major drainages in the Snowy Range, and even more impressive numbers pertain in the Sierra Madres and, further south, the Never-Summers above Colorado's North Park. The water in these mountains is headed into the North Platte River and, if the melting happens too fast, that river will rise well beyond its banks. Saratoga flooded last year, as did Encampment and Casper and many communities downstream on into Nebraska. This year we have even more very wet snow, and if these intervening warm days provide any evidence of things to come, we can expect some very serious and rapid melting in the weeks ahead.
Friends in town are already stockpiling sand bags. Crews with bobcats and backhoes are at work reinforcing river banks with wire encased hunks of rock. Everybody is looking nervously at the mountains gleaming whitely and ever so innocently through the nice warm days. Most can only guess at just how much water is waiting for them up here in what a local ranching friend recently labeled 'Siberia.'
For their sakes we are mostly hoping for a slow thaw. Most mornings, though, Suzy and I cannot wait to see this white stuff go, and go very quickly. Whatever happens is up to Mother Nature, and she always has the last and all-too-often devastating word. Look out below!
