Long Winters in a Remote Area

​Well we had a thaw in these parts that lasted about a month, but it seems winter has returned in its usual form of sub-zero temperatures, lots of snow, and even more wind. The wind might be the worst of it, as its absolutely cutting and eliminates the chance of doing much outdoors. I'm talking gusts of 90 or more at times. It ripped the gutter off the apartment next to me, leaving half attached, and all night I can hear it blowing and scraping across the ground and somewhere a little hole in the roof or ceiling or somewhere opened up and created this godawful whistling sound, which sent me to the couch with earplugs in. But that's beside the point.

The point is about this time, the same time I felt last year, I start getting the winter blues. Last weekend I hiked over Swift Dam, which was nice, but on my way up the snow was knee deep, and though snowshoes are on my to-buy list, I'm not in the position to afford them. This weekend I was just going to settle for having a fire. I even spent the evening organizing my gear to make a nice camp, but the wind chill has to be -10 below, and I'm not sure I could make it with the snow if it keeps falling like it's forecast. Its a good thing I stocked up on groceries, because we literally get cut off.

This all raises the question of what to do.

I'm thinking, make pancakes and coffee, working out to blow off some steam...and maybe I'll listen to some audio books about early polar explorers to put my sissy butt in its place. ha!