First Snow

As John says, "When it's snowing up above, it's raining down below." Well, today we figured the reverse must be true. It's a Saturday and the logging roads are open for the public to use. We've been listening to the weather forecast for days and came down from the cabin because it was supposed to be partly sunny. Well, we woke to gray skies. Still hopeful, we went to the airport to get our quad trailer out of the hanger. By the time we were all hooked up and ready to go, the drizzle started. What to do?

Well, we remembered John's saying so we decided to pick a destination where we could ride in the snow. Our choice was to go north of town to Wilde Road and head up to the Bunster Hills. We have been there several times before in both summer and winter. I remember well one winter trip in my truck. It was so memorable that Wayne wrote a story about it, "The Truck Got Stuck" in Up the Winter Trail.

We parked our truck and quad trailer in a wide turnout just past a tree that fell almost across the road during the last wind storm.

It seems like this area really gets hit hard by the winds. The first part of our ride was in a light rain, but in about 10 klicks it changed into snow. Even though we were in our rain gear, that made the ride more pleasant. It took another 2 klicks before we could see the snow starting to stick on the ground, but then it rapidly started to build. The last 3 klicks were in several inches of snow, but our tires handled it well. Then all of a sudden, there was too much and we had to turn around.

On our way back down we stopped at Appleton Creek where the Sunshine Coast Trail crosses the road. Then we continued on to Sliammon Lake to have our picnic lunch and had the whole campsite all to ourselves. Even with gray skies and a light mist it was a beautiful and relaxing place to enjoy our sandwiches and pop. It was a good day after all. John was right, but then he always is. -- Margy