The OPP asked drivers to avoid the Gravenhurst/Bracebridge/Huntsville area on Friday morning as some areas were forecast to receive 80cm of snow in a 24 hour period. Strong and cold winds blowing over the relatively warm water of Georgian Bay made for perfect lake effect snow conditions with narrow but long bands which reached as far east as Bancroft. Jack-knifed tractor trailers had necessitated periodic highway closures and the police got the message out loud and clear. We left at 10.30am.
We reached Orillia before it even clouded over but at Washago the nasty stuff started. We had made very good time to this point, having completed all of the grocery shopping in Orillia. We hit Washago shortly around 1pm and from there, Highway 11 was a single file line of trucks, 4 x 4's and a few cars inching along through the snow. For all of the remaining hours in the day until when we went to sleep, it snowed very heavily and did not let up for a second. Washago to Gravenhurst took almost an hour but the logjam broke after Gravenhurst as many drivers aborted their journey there - but not us. We carried on and reached the Highway 118 offramp before long but there were several vehicles stopped behind a tractor trailer which was stuck. After about 30 minutes, someone was able to plow around the truck and we were on our way but the adventure had really just begun.
The left turn onto Black River Road from 118 was blocked by a 5 foot tall plow windrow so we started digging with our plastic trunk shovel. I wanted to get the car off the highway as quickly as possible so we dug until I could get most of it out of the westbound lane. Then I put the chains on and the destination was Joe Trinka's driveway - only about 100 metres along - but the snow was too deep for my low clearance car and it just couldn't do more than 10 or 20 feet without a 20 minute excavation exercise every time. A few people live along the Black River Road and before long 3 of them were lined up behind us wondering what has possessed us to even try to drive this car on this road at this time. They tried to pull us but could not. Joe arrived home from negotiating various road closures in Bracebridge in his eventually successful attempt to buy more diesel fuel. He got me out with his heavy duty tractor and plowed enough to allow me to make it to his driveway. The traffic moved, the dogs got out in the snow and we were ready to prepare for the last leg of our journey - walking in to the cottage - 6km through deep snow in the dark with as much of our groceries and clothes as we could manage.
We dragged our stuff into Joe and Amy's mud room from our snow filled car and sorted through everything, packed my old packsack (which I keep in the trunk for this very purpose) and left the rest there. We had frozen lasagne and salad and a bit of milk for breakfast. I had a headlamp. Our winter boots were at the cottage and Siobhan had only running shoes. Joe had plowed the road at lunchtime but there was another 14 inches of snow to trudge through. Our 13 year old Westie, Poppy, had to be carried pretty much the whole way. At about 20 pounds, she's a bit awkward to carry - especially for 6km. We arrived just before 7.30pm or 9 hours after we departed the condo.
Muskoka is an incredible winter wonderland right now as more than a metre of snow had fallen when we left Sunday morning at 10.30am. Outside our lakefront condo: none. It was like we had been in another world for 2 days. Needless to day, it looks like we will have a good ski season again.
The Bills have probably moved down in the draft with their 5th win. The Colts game looks like it could be a chance to see a team trying to finish 16-0. Maybe the Bills will deny them. That would be our Superbowl this year, I guess.
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