1/18-22/17 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Wednesday through Sunday. On the weekend, I hosted the Boy Scouts of Troop 100 for another winter camp outing.

On Wednesday, I arrived at 12:40. The drive over the pass had required 4wd and when I arrived, I saw that the driveway had not been plowed. There was about 10 inches of new fairly wet snow. There was a pretty big berm thrown up by the county snowplow which took me about 45 minutes to dig through.

When I finished, I drove up the road a quarter mile, turned around, and then came back and barged into the driveway. I was able to drive over the new snow and park up at the hairpin turn. Then I put on the snowshoes and made trails up to the cabin, over the upper roadway, up to the privy, and above and below the concrete staircase.

Next, I raised the flag, started a fire in the stove, hauled my gear up, and finally had my lunch and a very welcome nap.

On Thursday, the temperature was 19° when I got up and it stayed there all day. After breakfast, I put the snowshoes back on and made a trail back to the sequoia tree named Paul. I could see the sign sticking above the snow so I dug the snow away to see how the tree was doing. There was about 35 inches of snow on top so it took a while to get down to the tree. I didn't uncover much of it but I saw that it was laid over and was completely flat against the ground. I decided just to leave it alone.

Then I headed for my main objective which was the big Doug fir log that I have been harvesting for firewood. I wanted to know, first of all whether I could find it, and secondly whether it would be feasible to harvest firewood in the winter. I figured that it might be easier to buck the log since the snow could be used to keep it from sagging and binding the saw. And it might be easier dragging the rounds back to the cabin over the snow than wheeling them in a wheelbarrow was during the summer. At least I wanted to try.

It took a while to locate the log and then a lot of hard work digging down through the snow to reveal the log. Once I did that, I kept working my way downhill clearing the snow off the top of the log looking for the end of it. I started pretty high, so by the time I reached the end I had uncovered about 30 or 40 feet of the log. That was all useful work if I was going to be able to harvest the wood at all.

Just about the time I found the end of the log and was about to quit for lunch, I heard Mike's tractor working. I hurried to get my snowshoes on and get down there to tell him to enlarge the driveway opening, but by the time I got there he was finished and was gone. I was disappointed that he hadn't opened the driveway entrance nearly enough to accommodate the troop bus. When I went into the cabin, I called him and explained that I needed him to come back and enlarge the driveway. He said he would.

After lunch and a nap, I went back into the woods and finished uncovering the log enough so that I could start bucking firewood rounds from the end of it. On the way back to the cabin I shoveled most of the snow off the woodshed roof. Having the snowshoes on made it possible for me to reach high enough from the ground to get the snow off with my scoop shovel.

On Friday morning, the temperature was 26° which was a little warmer than the day before. After breakfast, I shoveled the snow off the concrete staircase and finished in time to listen to the last part of the inaugural address on the radio.

Shortly after that, Mike's son Josh showed up with his tractor and I went down to tell him how I wanted him to clear the driveway and make more parking area. After he had cleared a couple parking spots, I backed my truck into one of them so he could plow out the driveway all the way to the hairpin turn. By the time he finished, he had cleared plenty of room for the bus and cars.

After lunch and a nap, I took the chainsaw into the woods and bucked three rounds from the end of the big log. I was a little apprehensive about preventing the saw bar from getting pinched and bound up. Since I had only cleared the snow away from the top of the log I couldn't cut from the side of the log and I couldn't really see where the log was supported underneath. I couldn't be sure the log wasn't lying on a rock right where I wanted to cut.

My plan was to make a vertical plunge cut straight down through the center of the log until I felt the bar break through the bottom. I went slowly toward the end and watched for bark to start appearing in the sawdust. At that point I could feel the resistance change and I knew the bar was all the way through. Then I enlarged the kerf in both directions still feeling for the bark at the bottom so that I didn't drive the bar into the dirt.

I enlarged the kerf mostly at the bottom so that there was more wood at the top. Then I gingerly enlarged the kerf on both sides at the top, both from inside and outside, trying to make sure it didn't close up and pinch the bar.

It seemed to work and I made all three cuts without any problem of the bar getting stuck, but I may have been lucky. I think that next time I will bring a wedge and drive it into the center of the kerf before I start cutting away the sides.

Anyway, I had proved that I can buck the log in the winter. Next I needed to haul the rounds out of the woods. I brought the saw back to the cabin and got a rope. I made a noose in the end of the rope and tightened it around the first of the rounds. Then I dragged the round out of the hole and up onto the trail that by now was pretty well packed. It was easy to drag the round all the way to the cabin—easier than wheelbarrowing them in the summer. I dragged two rounds to the cabin and then found that the third one wasn't cut all the way through and I couldn't break it loose with the tools that I had with me. But at least I know I can harvest the wood in the winter.

Before I went in for the night, I split up both rounds that I had brought down.

On Saturday morning, the temperature was up to about 30°. I put things away and tidied the place up. I carried a sheet of OSB up to the porch deck and set up the usual table on the sawhorses that the scouts use to make a kitchen out of the south half of the deck. I turned on the water to the hose on the front porch for use in the temporary kitchen.

Then I vacuumed the floor of the cabin, had my lunch, and waited for the scouts to show up. They, 32 boys and 10 adult leaders, arrived in the troop bus and three cars at about 11:45.

Bill Dunnell, Scoutmaster and bus driver, had no trouble parking the bus near the foot of the concrete staircase. The boys wasted no time setting up their camps, carrying their gear from the bus, throwing snowballs, digging snow caves and generally having fun. They set up their camps down below in the parking area as well as up above the privy and several rather flat spots in between.

A couple of the adults set up the kitchen and fixed the evening meal for the adults. The boys did their own cooking in their patrol campsites.

A few adults slept on the front porch, several boys slept in snow caves they had dug, one boy was sick and slept inside the cabin, and the rest of the boys and adults slept in tents on the snow.

On Sunday morning, the trails going up to the cabin were frozen solid and very slippery. I went to work cutting steps into the steeper parts and spreading sand over all of them to improve traction. They would have been very dangerous otherwise.

After having a great breakfast, cooked and served by the adult cooks on the porch, I joined the troop in a snowshoe exercise. They started on my trail to the firewood log that I was harvesting and then continued through the giant sequoia grove, up past the springbox, and back around to the cabin. There, one of the adult leaders conducted a training session on avalanche safety and rescue techniques. This was pretty much the same routine as last year.

Finally, the boys struck their camps, loaded everything back into the bus and cars, and they left shortly before noon.

Then I had my lunch, put a few things away, and left for home myself at 1:15. It was a very fun and successful outing with the scouts.