Winter Weather Snow Dance

January 17, 2013

Despite the January thaw Rangeley still has plenty of snow. As I drove up Route 16 North through the fog, which was sucking all our snow away in the White Mountains, I wondered if I was going to arrive at camp and see muddy bare ground. I rolled the window down and felt the heavy warm air on my face. I blinked a few times at the dark pines whose bows were being released from the weight and pressure of ice and snow as it melted away. At some point on route 26, between Errol and Richardson Lake, my skin prickled and I had to close my window. A chill had crept back into the air. I sat up a little straighter and squinted my eyes at the dark road. I thought I saw a little frost on the pavement– and dancing along the edge of my headlight’s reach there were definitely trees whose bows were still loaded with snow and touching the ground! My heart quickened a little. Maybe there was still snow in Rangeley…maybe there was enough to ski and play in…

I turned onto Quimby Pond Road between big snow banks, and started grinning uncontrollably. To an outsider, I might have looked like a crazy old bat wildly grinning alone in my car on a dark and snowy night. But a kindred spirit who also loves the snow would have known and understood. Rangeley still has plenty of snow and it’s not going anywhere fast. That is something to celebrate. So to all my kindred spirits: our snow-dances are working.

~Leah