Snowquester

A couple weeks ago, when the weather forecasts assured us that the entire east coast, as far back as Iowa, would be buried four feet deep in snow, there was the expected reaction of panic, early shutdowns of schools, businesses, and government offices, and shortages in every grocery store of milk, bread, and eggs.  I once heard a comic wonder why people always went for those items in time of crisis, and concluded that everyone dealt with major storms by making French toast.

Not us.

A friend of ours decided that the best response to the Snowquester (I can't take credit for that--it was all over the news) was to head for the mountains and play all weekend.  We agreed.  Snowquester was Wednesday (we only got wind and rain, but Ohio got hammered.  Go figure.), but Saturday morning we got up early and drove to Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia, where a group of us had rented a cabin for the weekend.

West Virginia got a little more snow than DC.

Once everyone had a chance to shovel in some lunch, we broke into two groups.  One went to nearby Dolly Sods to test their homemade gear sled.  Mainly they wanted to make sure it would pull straight behind them and not run them over going downhill, but as their pictures proved, they also wanted to go sledding.  Who could blame them?

This majestic cataract is about ten inches high.

Our quartet set off on snowshoes (and one pair of cross-country skis) to walk along the rim of Blackwater Canyon.  We passed the reservoir, where I later made several unsuccessful attempts to breach the slushy ice at the surface by lobbing hard-packed snowballs as high as I could, worked our way down to a smaller stream (see above), and finally found a great viewpoint at the canyon's edge where we built a couple mid-size snowmen, and pummeled them with snowballs until they fell.  The weather was amazing; our trip's organizer remarked several times how weird it was to be out snowshoeing in short sleeves and feel relieved when we found shade.

Not shown: the huge rock where we hung out  building snowmen.  I don't know why I don't have that shot.

When we returned to our cabin, the timing was just about perfect to try to get some good shots of the larger, more impressive Blackwater Falls.  Unfortunately, due to snow higher than the guardrails and ice-slicked stairs, the access to the lower viewing deck was closed, but I got this picture to let you know what you missed.

I bet it looks even cooler from up close.

That night, as is the custom with this particular group, we feasted.  There was a lasagna brimming with over three pounds of cheese--I really don't know what else was in there, but I did spot a couple lasagna noodles--which was brought from home to bake, tomato-basil soup, homemade sourdough bread, more cheese and crackers than any group of eight people could really need (all of which was consumed), a large salad, garlic bread, and hot fudge brownie pudding for dessert.  It may not have been camping, but that was never the point of the weekend, anyway.  Food and snowshoeing was the point.  Or maybe snowshoeing was the excuse for the food... I lose track, but we had a great time.