Sasquatch Sighting

Devil's Slide

Visiting the Snow:
This was a weekend when I went to visit the snow. We rarely get snow here in the Greater Newcastle megalopolis because the Pacific Ocean keeps us wet and mild. Our mountains get most of the snow. It can even snow in the mountains when it’s sunny in Newcastle. Ha ha, just kidding, the sun never shines in Newcastle.

A lot of your Western Washington residents like to go play in the snow because afterward they can return home and marvel at how rhododendrons can bloom in January. In February the blossoms turn brown and fall to the ground.

One method of visiting the snow is via snowmobile. That’s a kind of motorcycle that has a rubber track and runners instead of wheels. Amazing devices. But you aren’t supposed to ride them any place except on snow. And since the snow covers the mountains we need to go there to ride. You load them on a trailer and drag the whole outfit to where the rig gets stuck in the snow and there you are.

Well, on this particular trip we managed to visit a place called Devil’s Slide on the snowmobiles. It’s aptly named because it would be a devil to climb up and you’d probably slide back down. We didn’t make it to the top of Devil’s Slide because the snow and loose rocks were just too slick. But, in the tradition of Americans in the woods we made a fine mess. Snowmobile parts strewn along the trail for miles. What fun.

People who’re really into it ware helmets and brightly colored spacesuits while riding machines with names like “Sno-eater” or “Avalanche Masher” and stuff. They go upwards of 100 mph and don’t seem to have any barriers. If the Forest Service needs a road cleared of drifts they just put up a sign that says “Snowmobiles KEEP OUT!” and in a couple of hours the drifts are gone.

We saw 26 bears, 13 moose, about 300 elk, and 2 sasquatch. At least I think they were sasquatch. They might have been imaginative snowmobile jumpsuits. Their machines were pretty fast.

In any case it was a very nice weekend and I had a lot of fun. On the way home we ate at the Red Horse Drive-In just outside Ellensburg. We had great food all weekend and great company. Hard to beat a good weekend. Even if we did see sasquatch.

Al