With the passing of each day, we see a little more daylight, always an uplifting sensation after the short days of December and January. The past few days, the weather has been clear, a little warmer, and even a few sounds of spring in the air. The eagles and sea gulls are returning to the valley of the Anchor River. I know spring is on the way, I have spent the last two days taking down Christmas lights at the house and video store, the first real sign of spring. While doing this major chore, I had ample time to ponder my thoughts, "why does it take ten days to put up all of these lights but only a few hours to take them down"?
I also took the opportunity to walk out to the scenic bluff over looking the "hole in the wall campground", all was quiet and secure except for the cab over camper, it appears that the camper jacks collapsed under the extra weight of the heavy snowfall we had this winter. I am hoping that the heap of snow will not melt off before Memorial Day weekend, with a little shoveling, I think we can find the door into the camper and we will have a walk in cooler!
But while sitting on a stump, drinking my root beer and scratching Dutch's ear, I realized that our "little" campground is not fully utilized to it's fullest potential. Currently, the "Winter Games" are taking place, the "hole in the wall" is a natural place to hold great winter games. We should be utilizing it as a winter campground as well as a summer gathering place for the clans. The long driveway on the north border is a natural place for a bob sled run. If three idiots can make the run on this hill in a wagon, can you imagine the speed that you could pick up in a bob sled! The two ponds on the west border next to the highway could also be utilized. The smaller pond at the intersection would be a great, small hockey rink. The long, narrow pond would work great for a speed skating course and the mud wrestling pit could easily be converted to a curling rink. The terrain on the south slope of the area would be great for downhill skiing, we know that a wagon can not make this run in the summer, despite the "trail" that was carved into the side of the bluff. But on skis, it would be a great ride. By bringing in a front end loader, piling up snow into a ramp, we could utilize part of the bluff as a launch site for the ski jumping competition. Figure skating competition could also take place on the ponds following the hockey games. Cross country skiing and biathalon competition is easy enough to accomplish, there is 17 acres where we could make trails. We could set up the shooting range for the biathalon in front of the neighbors house to the east. The slopes on the east side of the campground is contoured perfectly for a great mogul skiing course and of course the slamon competition could take place on the down hill course. I know there are those within the clans that enjoy the more modern methods of winter sports, although rather noisy and obnoxious we could have the snow machine races on the Anchor Point Beach Road, the park rangers are never around in the winter. God only knows that we have enough dogs in the family that having a dog weight pulling contest would be so easy to accomplish. I mean, this can be an entire family and friends event, kids, adults, dogs, and even the cats! Of course, we would want to feature dog sledding races to have that realistic Alaskan flair, since none of us own a real "sled" dog, we could still harness up those dogs that we do have, turn a cat loose and I will guarantee you that we will out run any team of huskies! We may have a little trouble with Heidi's dogs, their legs are a little short but maybe we can use them as the "wheel" dogs. The winter games would also be great for "Homer" and John, they would not need to "borrow" so much ice from the tackle shop to keep their beer cold. Which brings up a point to ponder that I have often pondered, each year I go through several hundred pounds of ice to keep their beer cold. The question is, How do you borrow ice? I never saw anyone come back with a bucket of water! But,that is a different topic for a different time.