We had the best laid plans for the last hike in February, but then a huge snow storm hit us. Before we even left for our hike we had a foot of snow on the ground at our house. I decided that we would change plans and pick something closer to home so we wouldn't have to drive so far. Not too far from where we live in the Columbia River Gorge, there are forest service roads leading miles and miles into the wilderness and up into the higher hills. I figured that if we could just make it to the start of these forest service roads, then we could leave the truck, strap on some snowshoes and just hike those unplowed and abandoned roads through the forest for the day. It seemed perfect. Before we left, I took a shot of the Wolf posing before all the snow in front of our house. She was thrilled to have snow at home for sure!
But then the ferocity of the storm hit and she almost changed her mind. Nova was wisely running to try to hide under the covered porch when the storm showed its true face. Josie just closed her eyes and braced for the impact. Two more different girls you will not find! The wolf and I might be spirit animals this way!
Despite the violent nature of the storm and the additional foot of expected snow, we were determined to go on our hike this day. So I loaded the girls into the backseat of my trail truck and then spent the next 20 minutes digging it out from under all that snow burying it! Once that was done, I got inside and told the girls "let's go already!" At that point, I couldn't even get the truck to back up. It was in 4wd, but it was stuck. So back out I went to start digging out behind the truck now too. After another 20 minutes of digging, I got back in and had to rock the truck back and forth, back and forth to slowly work it out of its parking spot. I was pretty well exhausted by the time I got that truck out of the driveway I can tell you that! I could feel God telling me over and over that I wasn't suppose to go hiking today. He wanted me to stay home and relax by the fire with a book. As amazing as that did sound in the moment, I pretended I couldn't hear Him and reminded Him that He made me one determined woman. We were all packed and ready and leaving one way or the other!
As you should already know, it never goes well when I argue with God. I knew it. He knew it. Even the dogs knew it. But I had to give it a go. A very short distance from my home, I found my truck sideways blocking a road with my back two tires fully stuck and spinning in a deep ditch. In a moment of true ridiculousness, I found myself trying to gun it back out of that ditch while rocking my body forward and back in my seat. That always gets me unstuck when I am on my riding lawn mower I figured....but did nothing in a 2 ton truck. I smiled at myself despite the circumstances. There was no way I was getting out of that ditch by myself. But one of the best parts about living in Skamania County, Washington, is that everyone is what I call "Backwoods Folks". We help each other out no questions asked. We are generally all a determined and well prepared group of hermits! After only needing to sit for about 10 minutes, along came a nice man with a big truck and huge tow chain. He hooked me up and had me out in no time. He told me that I was the 5th person he had pulled out in the last hour and that I was the luckiest with no damage.
"Okay, Okay Father," I said to God. "You win, I will listen now." So we limped back home with our tail between our legs, barely getting the truck back in our driveway after the snow plow had just been through leaving a huge berm at the end. The girls seemed real confused by this sudden arrival back home. But I explained to them that we have 5 acres of deep snow here at home and there was no reason that we couldn't spend the next couple of hours playing, hiking, post holing and sledding on our own property. Then I figured I would just go up to our home gym and put in some real miles on the treadmill; who I spend more quality time with on a daily basis then most everyone else I know.
Josie thought this all sounded wonderful and was doing her best to turn into a snow covered wolf. The snow was so incredibly powdery, that it stuck to us all like crazy. As we headed down to the pasture and passed the barn, the snow seemed to get deeper and deeper from all the drifting, Nova had to decide how she was going to follow us. She started running and doing a full bunny hop as she flew along.
The snow got deeper, but NovaLeigh was not going to be left behind. Since we were in a fenced in pasture, I let her off her leash so she could run to her heart's content. But the wolf had to stay tied to me, for which my llamas, goats, and chickens are forever grateful.
Nova learned how to turn into a snow plow to get where she wanted to go. Look at that powder fly!
The more she practiced being a snow plow, the more she seemed to like it and ran faster and faster repeatedly doing fly-byes past Josie and I.
The next time I get my truck stuck in the snow, I should just have Nova be my snow plow and Josie tow me out!
Josie was loving just exploring the deep snow and surveying her land from a new perspective.
I think she was secretly hoping the llamas or goats would come play with us. But they were way too smart for that. They were very warily eyeing her for sure! They know a wolf when they see one and have always been happy that she has, up until now, stayed in the dog pastures and not theirs! See if you can spot the llamas among the trees. They were trying to be invisible.
Finally after lots of hiking in circles and having fun running and bunny hopping in the snow, the girls decided it was time to do some snow wrestling! I never let them do this on the trail because they tangle their leashes too much, but this time, I figured they could.
Just look at Nova's beefy thighs!! You wonder what hiking does to a body.
Of course, Nova has to do all the jumping to reach up as high as the Wolf.
Now I can tell you that even though Josie is twice as big as Nova, the littlest lady always wins every wrestling match! She is the Alpha of this duo and they both accept this. She has the true Little Dog-Big Dog syndrome....which makes her my spirit animal too.
Eventually the girls were drained of all their energy and they voted that we trek back up to the house so they could lay be the fire and I could drink some hot cocoa. We still didn't have power when we went up there, but it was so nice to have home this close to our snow day!! God clearly knew what He was talking about after all! The challenge was then getting in my treadmill miles between the power outages the rest of the day! But if that was the worst thing that happened, I can deal with that.
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