It was a long time in coming; winter camping has been a goal of mine for over a year. Even though I was working towards it for so long, it came a lot quicker than I expected. I thought that at the earliest, it would be next winter. Instead, my spring break turned into an epic of a greater size than I had imagined possible.
It all started early in the semester. One night in the rock gym, a bunch of us guys were talking about cold weather camping. I threw out the idea that we should spend spring break in the Adirondacks; backpacking and hiking the high peaks. This slowly became an idea that took root and grew. It took a couple months, but we started to settle on a plan. Our most ambitious plan was to hike 30 high peaks over break on an eight day trek through the mountains. Quickly realizing the infeasibility of this plan, considering our limited experience and the amount of gear needed for that length of hike, it was modified to be two four day excursions.
The group was to consist of the colossus, Sam, the bearded Raf, the…. idk… mustached Asian? Nate, and me. Raf and Nate, both hailing from Santa Barbara California were experienced campers, but had never hiked in the woods. Sam, from Massachusetts, had experienced harsher winters than the Californians and had completed the Franconia ridge with me this winter, but he still was new to prolonged time in winter. I was not much better off; though I had spent much of my Christmas break hiking in the Adirondacks, I had never actually camped in winter conditions. I had read quite extensively on the subject and knew more about snow travel than the rest of the group; but we were all setting out ready to learn what the woods had to teach us, hoping the lesson would not be too harsh.
In preparation for the trip, we had a couple nights during the quad where we would camp out. This helped us learn what gear worked and sort out better what we would bring along. After several nights spent outside, our confidence began to build. Spring break was fast approaching, and our excitement grew exponentially.
Unfortunately, disaster struck even before we had left campus. Sam, that strong individual, that burly, cheerful, strength, somehow injured his knee. The entire week before we left he rested it, hoping that it would regain its lost vitality. He debated whether it was worth the possibility of hurting it further for awe-striking views, and cold nights, snuggled deep inside a zero degree sleeping bag. In the end he decided, quite wisely, that it was not worth the possibility and checked out of the group. Sad to see him go, but resolute in our determination, we packed up and headed out.
Break started for us on Wednesday. We were going to go home, spend the night, and on Thursday, buy and package food. We got a late start. It was around six thirty when we pulled out of Gordon. The first part of the drive home went by without much note. However, when we got to the northern part of Vermont, the snow started falling. By the time we crossed the bridge into New York there was quite a bit of fresh snow. Since it was getting on to midnight, the roads were not being cleared very well. This was not a problem, as I flipped a switch and put my pickup into four wheel drive.
About twenty miles from home, we passed a car that had run off the road into the snow bank. Wanting to help if we could, we turned around. The car had obviously gone off within the past 20 minutes, but there was nobody in the vehicle. Since there wasn’t anybody to help, I started to perform another three point turn. Unbeknown to me, the snow bank that was level with the road hid a sharply sloping bank. My front end went off the road slightly and started sliding down hill. I quickly put it in reverse, but it was too late; I was stuck. I tried a variety of techniques, rocking it out, gunning and spinning tires; but even with four wheel drive, I could not get it out. Raf was sleeping when we had gone off the road and he groggily asked what was going on. I tersely responded that we were off the road, jumped out, grabbed my snow shovel, and started hacking away at the snow bank.
I had been working on it for about a minute before an old pickup truck pulls up beside the road. The passenger rolled down her window and yelled out, “You got stuck too? In a four wheel drive? I can f@#$%*g drive that through the field.” A little intimidated, but buoyed up by her exuberant greeting, I asked if they had a tow rope and she replied, “we have a chain, were f@$%^#g rednecks!!!!!” We worked together to attach the chain to my pickup. We easily pulled it out and they asked us to stick around until they got the car out. Since the car was so far off the road and the chain they brought was only six feet, we linked up my tow rope to their chain. While we work working, the lady asked me, and then asked Nate if we had any cigarettes. Of course we did not, so she finally bummed one off of her friend. Her car did not have any visible hooks or tie on points, so I crawled under, braving the snow and attached to rope to a metal loop on the underside. Fortunately, the combined chain/rope just reached their pickup.
When he pulled the car out, it went flying down the ditch, the woman hollering out the open window, until the car finally landed on the road. It was quite a sight, wheels spinning, snowflakes, falling and sparkling in the headlights, and the car sliding long-ways down the ditch. After unhooking, we bade each other safe travels and hit the road. We marveled at the excellent way that our adventures were starting. If break started in such a good way, there was no way it was going to be boring.
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