Snowstorm could be worse
Wow! What a snowstorm! Over a foot in Columbia Falls but 36 inches on the North Fork. That 36 inches was new snow that fell on 3-4 feet of snow already on the ground. Plus whiteout conditions on the road made it an event to remember.
Even the aftermath was fun. During the storm a few folks could not get home due to the wind and immediately afterward the snow was too deep. It was interesting on email and Facebook to watch the comments, “I’ve never seen anything like this”, “When are the plows coming?” How far have the plows gotten?” Sitting at my computer in my warm house it was better entertainment than watching TV.
Actually the County Road Department did a spectacular job. Grader operator Randy punched a one-way clearing to the border, then worked his way back to town widening the road for normal traffic.
Of course, that still left side roads and lanes. One slow moving story received by email chronicled a neighbor getting his big snowblower with a heated cab stuck. An hour later his 4x4 pickup was stuck too. Even later his wife’s 4x4 was stuck and a neighbor was coming to help. Then they were all stuck and going in to get warm and make plans for the next day. In the end, with more neighbors coming to help, everything was unstuck, lanes were plowed and everything was back to normal in two days or less.
Looking to the past this was not a really big storm. I can remember times when snow fell at 4 inches per hour for hours on end. I once snowshoed from my cabin to Ford Station to catch a ride to town with the mail man to get to town for school.
Many times blizzards lasted for several days with snow, wind, and frigid temperatures and the county only plowed to Polebridge. Anything north of Polebridge was done by loggers or was left unplowed until spring. Snow slides were not unusual either. I spent several nights at Big Creek Ranger Station waiting for bulldozers to clear slides on Fool Hen Hill. Once in a while folks from town would drive up to a snow slide, walk across it, and exchange keys with someone from up north, that way some got up north to work and others got to town to buy supplies and then returned by exchanging keys again at the snow slide.
Most year-rounders just hunkered down and waited out the storm with a full woodshed and a well-stocked root cellar. Even today I’ll bet Hoilands and Ogles and a few others could spend the rest of the winter well-fed and warm without coming to town.
Anyway, it was fun. What do you think?
Larry Wilson’s North Fork Views appears weekly in the Hungry Horse News.