Secret Weather Language

On Sunday the weather forecast said Sunday night there was a 30% chance of snow flurries. Last time it snowed it said party cloudy. I swept five inches of partly cloudy off the porches. So, snow flurries, in secret weather language means blizzard. I spend Sunday setting thermostats in houses, putting full propane tanks in rooms and hogans with an electric heater in all of them as back ups, turned the generators on so I'd have plenty of battery life since there wouldn't be any sun for a few days, and turning off or disconnecting spigots that could freeze, break, and become a problem. The pond had a little bit of ice in it but in the background you can see there's a lot of ice floating down the river.

I wake up Monday morning to this.

I have three check outs on Tuesday morning and everyone is a little nervous about getting over Hurrah Pass with the road conditions. I'm not. When it snows like this nobody comes out here so the road doesn't get packed down and there's no ice. Don't worry it will be fine.

A little later some guests, despite the conditions, want to use a side by side, which doesn't have a roof on it. I take the primary driver over to the Wind Caves in the side by side because there won't be any tracks in the snow and I want to make sure he can drive in these conditions and without tracks they can't find the road. But when we turn out of the property onto the main road there are three sets of tracks. Ok, I'm a little nervous but as long as there aren't anymore people coming out here we'll be fine Tuesday morning. I tell everyone, don't worry, we'll be fine.

After guests head off to the Wind Caves I hear chatter on Channel 21 the channel we use to communicate around the property and when guests leave. A guy shows up to camp and says there are eight jeep coming over Hurrah Pass. That's who's on our channel.

Tuesday morning. I'm nervous. I'm going to lead out and give each vehicle a walkie. In the corner before the first turn it's getting slippery so I have to stop and put it in four wheel. It's packed down in quite a few places, I'm sliding a tad here and there, and a couple of the turns are I think I heard the word memorable.

Everyone made it and there were no issues or at least nobody said anything on the walkie and I saw nothing unusual in my mirror. I collected walkies at the top and said goodbye to everyone and even in these conditions Base Camp's magic had affected them. I saw the smiles on all the faces as they waved goodbye.