4/21/13 – We ended up with 20.5″ of snow from the most recent storm. The snow on the ground was right up to 4′ deep. It settled a little bit yesterday, in spite of a high temperature of 23F, just because the sun was out and has a lot of power this time of year. Today, it is snowing again, but we’ve had little accumulation.
I tried to groom the ski trail after the storm, but the snow was too deep for the snowmobile. It would make headway under full power if I stayed right on the formerly packed ski trail. If I strayed even 6″ off the packed course, which was hidden under the fresh snow, the snowmobile would tip off the trail and bury itself on its side in 4′ of soft snow. Twenty minutes of shoveling, heaving, sweating and cursing would get it in position to gun it out of the hole and back onto the trail. A short distance later, it would fall off the trail and the whole process was repeated.
I had no choice but to dig out the snowmobile because the snow was literally too deep to walk through. The only way to move under your own power was to literally swim through the snow, which is painstakingly slow. After an hour of struggle, I finally got the snowmobile back to the shop, where it will stay until this new snow firms up a bit.
Here is the most recent edition of the Cook County West End News from WTIP, North Shore Community Radio. – Bill