Pilgrimage

  A few post's back I mentioned how Lake Wallenpaupack is like my sacred place. Last night we finally had some free time and a vehicle so we made the pilgrimage north. I had checked the weather reports and things we're all clear. Cold, some clouds, and more cold. No problem that's what hats and gloves are for.

  We left the apartment and didn't really hit much traffic, but when we got to Mt. Pocono, we started noticing the streets were a little slick and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. Not much, just enough to make it look pretty. San and I commented on it, and I mentioned I had checked the weather so maybe the snow was from the day before. 

  As we continued on it started flurrying, by the time we got to the lake it was full on snowing. Thing's were getting a little slick but still not to bad. It made the landscape unfamiliar enough that we thought we missed our turn even though we hadn't. When we finally got to the spot, the side roads were coated with snow. We slowly crept down the hill and parked the car.

  We only stayed for a little while at the lake. Most of the time we just looked out across the darkened lake and listened to the silence. It's a completely different place in the off season. No people, no boats, not even docks. I really didn't want to leave, but it was snowing pretty hard and I was worried we wouldn't make it off the mountain if we stayed much longer. 

  When we got to the car we noticed how different the snow was here. At home we get the standard wet flakes that quickly dissolve. Here the flakes looked more like rough cut salt crystals. Real big, chunky, and dry. The snow was so dry in fact that we didn't even need windshield wipers. It just didn't seem to stick to anything but the ground.

  We made our way very slowly up the hill and finally got out to a main road. We left just in time, if we had stayed much longer we would have gotten stuck. The snow was really coming down and road conditions were getting really sketchy. As we headed toward Greentown, there was one spot where the roads were horrible. 

  We were going really slow an still sliding a bit. On the left side of the street there was an emergency response vehicle and a girl with her car all smashed up in a ditch. About a hundred yards up, another car on the left was flipped, and on the right there were two vehicles smashed into poles. This was easily the scariest part of the whole excursion. 

  The snow never let up until we got past Mt. Pocono and even then we saw a few smalls bands. But for the most part it was a standard ride home after that. It was pretty crazy how fast all the snow had fallen. We were only at the lake for about a half hour. If I had known it was gonna snow I wouldn't have gone but I guess it's good we did because I think the next trip will have to wait until spring.