A New Coat for Winter

It's been a busy couple of weeks at Basecamp getting ready for winter.  The lodge and cabin were in need of some fresh color around the interior, so the winter team - Kim, Steve, Jaclyn, Brianna and I -  got to painting.  As with all painting projects there were spills, the need for multiple coats, paint on objects that should not have paint, and general unpredicted yet predictable happenings that increased the length and amusement of the project.  In the end, we painted nearly every room in the lodge as well as the main room in the cabin, adding such colors as earthquake, telluride tan, terra-cotta tile, and clay pot.

The painting, along with general winter preparedness work including wood chopping, shoveling, cover building, and all around cleaning, has been my main activity since arriving in Mazama at the beginning of December.  It was great to get back out to the Cascades after spending the autumn back home in New England.  The night I arrived there were 6-8 inches of fresh, heavy snow on Lost River Road, which I took to be a sign of good things to come.  It was, however not in the snow department. Since then, there have only been small flurries of an inch or two, making it a decidedly mediocre start to the winter.  Don't despair though, six inches of snow was plenty for an East-coaster like me to get out on the Methow Valley Ski Trail Association trails.  Nearly every day I've been able to head right out my door and explore the myriad trails snaking around the valley.  Since I arrived here I think I have already doubled the amount of nordic skiing I've done in my life.  And I love it more every day; the motion of skate skiing is somewhat addictive.

I'm enjoying settling in to life here at Basecamp, getting to know Kim, Steve, Emmitt and Amelia better every day and building on the already-strong bond Mica and I have formed during our brave, late-night hardwood floor crossings (significantly more challenging for some of our four-legged friends).  I look forward to the rest of winter here with the other staff, - Jaclyn and Dierdre along with the Bondi family - meeting our guests, and maybe, possibly, more than a couple inches of snow this year!

A couple pictures from skating on Davis Lake (where we found a bat frozen in the ice!):