By Joe Crain
Have you ever had the experience of “to much of a good thing”? For example, let’s say it’s the first Cruiser Day of the season and all you can think about all morning is that awesome walk from camp’s waterfront gate down to the 2nd best place in Lake Nebagamon, the Dairy Queen. (Because let’s face it, we all know the best place in Lake Nebagamon is the grounds of Camp Nebagamon! Although I’m sure there are one or two of you that will maintain that I got that reversed.) On your way down to the DQ for the first time of the season, all you can think about is getting the biggest sweetest treat on the menu! Maybe you’re a first year Swamper and your head is filled with stories of past trips to the DQ told to you by your grandpa, dad, or older brother. Maybe if you are truly new to Nebagamon it was your Big Bro/Little Bro partner that filled your mind with thoughts of the awesome DQ delights you had to look forward to on Cruiser Days.
Whatever the case, there you are headed to the DQ and all you can think is big and sweet and delicious. If you are a “Malty” it’s going to be an extra-large malt with extra malt of course! Perhaps you’re a cone person, a “Coney” and all that you can think about on that long walk down the waterfront road is the extra-large cone, you know, the one that in order to see it’s top, you have to slightly tilt your head back, and you have to grasp it with both hands because hold all off that cool, sweet deliciousness in just one hand seems neither safe nor appropriate. Or if you are really a big thinker, and have a really large DQ hankering (this is the first trip of the season after all), you might be thinking about going all in and are going to get the DQ treat that combines not just one, or just two (the dipped extra-large cone for example) of your favorites, but the DQ treat that goes all the way and lets you combine three cones worth of ice cream with your favorite three toppings all sandwiched between a sliced banana and smothered in a mound of whipped cream in what is essentially a trough of DQ goodness: the Banana Split! (Yep you’re a “Splitty!”) But anyway, I know I’m getting a little carried away here (oh man, what was I thinking, and it’s18 weeks before the DQ opens for the season… FOCUS!)
Where was I now, oh yea, you get to the DQ, order up your extra-large favorite and at about ¾ of the way through you think to yourself, “OH NO. This is way too much of a good thing!” But you are no quitter, you will…slurp…gulp… finish it all… augh…groan. There you stand belly distended, ice cream and sauce all over your face and your camp t-shirt, looking down that long walk back to camp’s gate. And of course the one guy in your cabin that didn’t overdo it is all jazzed up and ready to rough-house on the walk back and you’re all like…burp… don’t do it or… or … I…might……. Well anyway, so I’m thinking you all now get what I mean by too much of a good thing. (I just checked again; thankfully it is only 17 weeks till the DQ opens, and sorry, 20 weeks till you guys get the pleasure.)
That’s how it was for me with snow this year up here at camp. I’m a big snow and winter person as those of you who have been reading my Arrowhead articles through the years know. I was all ready for a great season on the camp trails. I got the Miracle On Snow out, my 1975 Artic Cat Pantera, after the first few small snows came and had the old beast up and running for its 48th year of operation. (All of those years were not with me, for what it’s worth.) The amazing piece of machinery started again with no issues and I had run it around the camp trails once to establish a good base. I was anticipating an awesome season on the cross country skies shushing about on camps trails. Then, boom, to much of a good thing: 16-20 inches of the densest, wettest snow we have seen in years, and rarely so early in the season. The snow was so dense it looked blue rather than white! So much snow, all in one shot, and this wasn’t that nice “tasty” fluffy stuff either. According to the local weather reporter it had a density of five to one, which they explained meant that for every one inch of water only five inches of snow was formed. A nice fluffy snow will be at a density of 18-1, or 18 inches of snow for every one inch of water, which is most common for us here this far north. Heavy density snows usually only happen here in the spring when the temperatures are quite a bit warmer. Well, with Mother Nature dishing up the treat, you don’t really get to decide to overdo it accidentally or otherwise, you just have to cope and survive it. And the snow has just kept coming all season. We’ve had several eight-inch snow falls and a number of six-inch storms, and… burp…burr…shovel, shovel, shovel……where are we going to put it all…and…it’s…only… the end…of…January……
Waist deep in “to much of a good thing,” it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.
