We are thankful we had some snowy roads to walk this past Sunday.
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Category Archives: Snow
Breaking News
We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog for this breaking news. We know, we know, we had promised to share with you the damage and repairs from a certain invasion of cute, furry creatures. We think the hu-dad believes we failed in our guard dog duties. He keeps pointing out that we were all out on the dog porch alone when the damage occurred. Not sure what he really means by that. Regardless, we are delaying that story until Wednesday’s post, so just bear with us.
We are postponing because we have real breaking news. Not some silly story like you see on the TV networks. You know, not something like Charlie Sheen said something totally incomprehensible or Justin Bieber parted his hair in a different way. No, this is real news. Look at this:
SNOW!
We were supposed to receive heavy rains all weekend and had received about 3 inches (8 cm) of rain when suddenly it shifted to snow Sunday morning. The National Weather Service helpfully issued a Winter Weather Advisory, AFTER we already had an inch or so and the snow plows were running. Guess they were as surprised as the rest of us.
Rusty was loving his unexpected snow romp.
Not wanting to let a surprise snow go to waste, we took off hiking.
We enjoyed the snow surrounding our favorite tree.
And, of course, we had to watch in on our neighbors over at Cataloochee Ski.
Cataloochee Ski was enjoying their last skiing day of their 50th season.
The ski patrol had planned to work for another month, but our unseasonably warm February ended skiing season early.
But we didn't want to think of winter ending early, so we just took off to enjoy our snow.
And walked our way back through our field toward our favorite tree.
We will be back tomorrow with Ruby Tuesday and a visit to our cousins across the valley, and then we will resume our look at that mysterious damage at Chez Herd and the repairs on Wednesday. Thanks for your patience!
Warm Weather Wednesday
How warm is it? Cataloochee Ski, our neighbor, has just announced that they will be closing this coming Sunday, March 6. Last year, they closed April 11. (And congratulations to them on completing their 50th season. What an awesome accomplishment!)
Cataloochee skiers enjoying this past weekend's fun.
After a very snowy and cold January, we have had one of the warmest and driest Februarys we can remember. For a Siberian, nothing is worse than a warm winter month. Well, except maybe those humans smiling about it.
Our revenge is very predictable, however. Since the ski resort maintains the road off of our mountain, they stop clearing snow as soon as they close. Every year, there is snow that falls after they close and our humans are stuck figuring out how to drive the 15% grade on a snow slick road. We are counting on a wonderfully miserable March and April.
In the meantime, pictures of our suffering:
Natasha says a February day is not supposed to be this warm (the picture was taken Sunday on the closed Blue Ridge Parkway).
Kiska says her wooly coat had better start shedding any day now.
Qannik is so warm he just melted.
P.S. – The good news is that the Blue Ridge Parkway in our area should reopen soon which will allow us access to some of our favorite trails. A week ago, we were still finding snow covered roads (the Parkway has very little snow removal budget, so they just close the road when it snows which means that our section is closed for several months each year). This past Sunday, our hiking found very little snow even above 5000′ (1500 meters).
Hiking Goal
Snow at the ridge tops
So time to do a little hiking so we can go play in the snow.
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Still Some Snow
We realized that in yesterday's post we left everyone believing we had no snow. It's thin, but we still have many closed roads to hike on.
We may have to look for the right places to hike, but we can still get the Kiska grin going.
And the redheads can still be redheads.
Warm Weather Wednesday
Remember this?
The snow at the end of our driveway was taller than our cars just a little over a month ago.
This is just wrong.
Yes, our February has been one of the warmest and driest Februarys we can remember – as opposed to so many of you who have been battling winter weather the last few weeks. We are trying to decide if winter has just abandoned us – or if March is going to be one bitter payback. (Or, in Herd speak, whether March is going to be beautifully cold and snowy).
Snow Q&A
Time to answer a few reader questions -
Is the snow disappearing from our tree?
Holly, Life with Dogs, Wild Dingo and others asked, “Are you losing all your snow?”
Well, we are losing a lot of it. We had a stretch of warm weather the last several days along with some rain (can you believe it – rain – not even frozen), and a good bit of our snow has disappeared. Have no fear – we are supposed to get more this weekend and still have plenty on the ground in places.
Melting snow
Sagira asked, “Do you guys ever have any flooding issues with the snow melting to fast?”
The area around us often has a lot of flooding from melting snow, but we are fortunate that we do not have to worry about that where we live on the top of a mountain. By the way, one of the interesting facts about where we live is that our county is one of the few in the U.S. where every single body of water in our county STARTS within our county. Yep, there is absolutely no water that flows from another county INTO our county. No creek, river, etc. They all flow out. Think about that one a little and you realize how unusual that is.
Snowy walking trails
Norwood (or Nordude or Nordolph) asked, “Do you still walk the trails- do they get groomed or do you just follow the roads now?”
Many of our favorite trails are inaccessible this time of year without snowshoes and a willingness to walk many miles to the trail heads (because so many roads are closed). We tend to stick to our most common trails this time of year.
The main road off the mountain stays in good shape even during the middle of the storm.
Sierra Rose asked, “What’s the elevation there in Maggie Valley?”
The town of Maggie Valley itself sits at just over 3,000 feet (914m), but we live on one of the mountains above Maggie Valley at 4,500 feet (1372m), which explains why the 2.5 mile (4km) road pictured above is so much fun – steep and winding.
Keep the questions coming!
Sunday Morning Stroll
We went off Sunday morning for our usual stroll.
It has been a while since we have shared a picture of our favorite tree in our field.
Its sheer size stuns us no matter how often we see it (and, yes, that is the red team at its base).
And we sat under the tree for a while watching the skiers and snowboarders at Cataloochee Ski.
Almost Spring
Ok, ok, it is not almost spring. We have quite a ways to go yet before we are out of winter, but Saturday sure felt wonderful. Sure, the humans enjoyed it, but even we had fun running around and stretching our legs. And riding around in the Jeep with the windows out!
We got up to 51F (10C) Saturday at the house. Considering we barely saw above freezing temperatures for most of January, that felt like a tropical paradise. We went down to Asheville and they had a high of 62F (16C). To give you an idea of how crazy that is, Asheville has had exactly five days with temperatures above 50F (10C) since December 1. They are over 2000 feet (610m) lower in elevation than us, so you can imagine what our weather is like. We haven’t seen 50F since well before Thanksgiving and got our first snowfall on November 5 (later than normal, for the record).
The only problem is that our snow is melting. Nothing is more depressing than melting snow (though the humans are smiling for some weird reason).
Remember our picture of the road to our house a few weeks ago?
Here is the same scene yesterday.
Remember how our driveway looked?
Here is the driveway yesterday.
Remember that mountain of snow at the end of the driveway?
The mountain is shrinking rapidly.
Have no fear, pups, we are promised more before the winter is over. After all, our ski resort closed on April 11 last year – so a lot of winter is still to come! The humans may not agree with us, but cross your paws for more snow. Lots and lots of more snow.
Power of Fur Wheel Drive
The Blue Ridge Parkway section near our house is closed most of the winter.
And we love exploring and playing on the Parkway.
Good thing we have fur wheel drive.
Our section of the Blue Ridge Parkway may be closed (well, at least closed to cars – hikers are welcome) in the winter, but the road is open in many areas and the hiking is beautiful in the winter. You can call 1 828 298 0398 to get current road conditions and closings. Hope to see you on the trail!
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the current herd
Natasha
Rusty
Kiska
Kodiak
Qannik
Cheoah