By Joe Crain
After sputtering through December, Old Man Winter definitely has us in his grip here in the North Woods of Wisconsin. This month, we went from above average temperatures with occasional dips in December to below average temperatures with occasional reaches above average in January. The transition happened abruptly on the first of January when the temperature, starting from a “high” of 0 degrees, fell through the day bottoming out at -22! On the 2nd we made it back up above zero with a high of 3 degrees and again fell to a low of -29 degrees! Thankfully, that -29 was the lowest of the lows for the month, but we did reach well into the -20’s seven more times throughout January and woke to temperatures in the below-zero range 18 times this January. Our days have been a bit milder than the nights with only two occasions when the mercury stayed below zero for the whole day, with a high of negative three on the 10th and negative 4 on the 25th. The occasional above average days have been relatively warm, reaching near 30 degrees on a couple occasions. The month only saw 1 significant snow storm on the 5th. We woke to a fresh 13 inches on the ground. All and all, it has been a very dry month with no other major snowfall, although many micro-snows occurred with less than an inch of accumulation. Although we have had about 30 inches of snowfall since just before Christmas, we currently have about 14 inches of snow on the ground due to settling and several very windy days.
Unfortunately, the snow we have gotten since late December came so close together and in such large amounts (two 13-inch deposits between Dec. 27th and Jan. 5th) I have been unable to groom ski trails at camp this year. The “Miracle on Snow”, my 1975 Artic Cat Pantera snowmobile that I use to groom the bike trails throughout camp into ski trails, was somehow able to start again for its 46th season, however it was unable to get any traction in the deep snow. The Macks have been doing their best to pack down the trails with snow shoe hikes, and perhaps things will be packed enough that the “Miracle” may be able to move again come February. I have been out on the trails myself with my backcountry gear. Still, at a pace of two miles an hour instead of the usual pace of 6-7 miles an hour on groomed trails, it takes several outings to ski the complete five mile circuit.
All of this colder weather has kept Caretaker Andy and I focused on indoor work this month. Caretaker Andy has spent a good portion of the month sprucing up the Basement of the Little House (the summer home of camp’s Directors and owners Adam and Stephanie). One bedroom, the hallway, and the stairwell all got a much-needed fresh coat of paint. The old carpet was pulled and replaced with some new and easier to maintain carpeting and the hallway ceiling that had some water damage caused by a drain mishap from the upstairs bathtub was replaced with new ceiling tile. I have been in the shop building a new set of cookout boxes for all of camps four villages. I had planned on sprucing them up with a fresh coat of paint, but after close inspection found that only 3 of the 27 cabin cookout boxes and none of the larger Village barbecue boxes were worth sprucing up. Wood rot and many years of patching had taken their toll, and I decided it was better in the long run to build new ones. Though the boxes are intended for hauling foodstuffs to the cabin cookout, sites they serve many duties from hauling firewood to serving as temporary step stools. I also remember seeing them often at Chef’s Cap competitions as make shift food prep tables. The boxes are all bright, fresh and solid once again ready for many decades of food service… or whatever extraneous uses future campers find for them!
Wishing that our temps would return to, and maybe even stay near the more seasonable average of the mid-twenties, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.