After spending Christmas night in a much too soft bed in Visalia, we were off in search of snow and a bed in a lodge in a more desirable location. Depending on the road conditions, we should be able to reach the lodge with enough time to get in a few hours of cross country skiing. yay.
Emily expresses displeasure at detouring through Visalia..
At the park entrance, the signs indicated that we were in for a good day…
The ranger told us we could get to Wuksachi if we had chains, patience, and common sense. Two out of three ain’t bad. We were also told that the lodge was still without power, but they were working on it. Who needs power, just give us another blanket for the night, and we’d just drink around the fireplace in the main lodge. No problem.
Up we go. Hints of the immediate future
from bluebird to socked in
still driving…
Although, I could not bring myself to stop and take the picture of the deer on the side of the road. The vehicles that were in front of me can not make the same claim. Not only did they stop in the road to take pictures (of a deer!!!), one of them got out of his car and walked in front of the cars to get a closer picture. Patience at an end, I was more than happy to pass them all while they gawked. We did stop momentarily for this guy, who seemed well fed and too comfortable around people. He started coming right up to the truck, and gave me a look of dismay as I drove off without tossing him a treat.
One of the park’s namesakes…
A few turns later, we were there. Wuksachi Lodge.
“We’re here. Dr. and Mrs. Sportsman. Ready for our room, and our skis.” chop. chop. said with huge smiles, radiating excitement..
“Ummm.. we’re sorry, but we don’t have power, so we’re not checking anyone in right now. And with all this new snow, we’re not giving out skis either (wtf?!?!)…”
Long story short (too late, I know). Theyhad no power, the previous night had been very rough. They were not entertaining our assurances that we just wanted a room, and the skis. give us an extra blanket, and we’ll be fine. We even brought enough food for ourselves (and enough beer to share). No decisions had been made, the manager was on her way up from Three Rivers to assess the situation..
So we went exploring..A fallen sequoia with a tunnel cut out, large enough for Em to walk through it
on to the granddaddy of them all. the largest tree in the world..General Sherman Tree.
note the people down and the left of the tree for scale..
yes, we were those people, hiking through the snow in jeans and cords, regular shoes, etc. Big smiles. Big, big smiles..
and a little bit of liquid warmth
I’m sorry to say that we considered mugging this guy for his sled. we will have to say a few more oms during our next yoga practice to restore our karma. maybe add patience as our intention..
Then, it was back to the lodge. preparing our case: they have a very stern, no excuse, no refund policy, we don’t care about the niceties. we want a room. we want the skis. we want. we want. we want. Before we can launch into our righteous indignation spiel, the guy at the desk informs us “We’re evacuating. guests and employees.” ooops, so much for any indignation. Evacuating a lodge in the snow, that adverts itself as a snow get-away, with winter vacation packages to enjoy the snow, because they received too much snow (in a storm that wouldn’t even give CO students a snow day). the irony was too rich..
oh well, we give up. decide to head back to bako for some mountain biking instead. but, one more stop, to upgrade our Christmas tree..
and, a last stop at the bottom to visit Hospital Rock, and watch some people playing on their sleds.
we didn’t have the heart to tell them that if they’d drive for 15 to 20 more minutes, they could actually sled on snow instead of grass, and still not drive on snow covered roads…
Emily’s tale of our first Christmas
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