Spring HAD sprung!  But winter was doing it’s darndest to fight it off.

The snow was melting!

I arrived in Mammoth to sunny skies and the delicious drip, drip of melting snow and thawing lakes.

After 8 months of snowshoeing and sledding and toting heavy items on my back I was ready for the snow season to be over.  If a groundhog popped up and announced 6 more weeks of winter I probably would have gone against my animal lover nature and wrung his little neck Phil Connors style.

For the first time since the start of the season I was able to walk to the cabin in just hiking boots.  Doing my best impression of Nancy Kerrigan slipping and sliding in my boots but sans snowshoes nonetheless.  I could actually step into the cabin without feeling like I was going to rip a hole in the crotch of my ski pants.

No yoga moves required today!  Not only could I step right in without some serious Cirque Du Soleil training but I could actually see DIRT.  As in the ground.  As in non- slippery, neck breaking, ice or snow. Good old fashioned MUD.  This was a major breakthrough. Here I was doing a jig because I could walk on D-I-R-T.  Wasn’t exactly the end of The Trail of Tears but I rejoiced nonetheless!

I could actually open the bedroom shutters for the first time in months!  Peeping Toms have at it, I was going to wake up with sunlight streaming in the windows instead of the dreary forest service green of the window shutters that I had been staring at for the past 7 months.

With my new found foot freedom everything got a lot easier and how the forest had awoken.  There was a still magic in the air.  You could feel the hushed awakening of everything.  Just there.  Just under the surface.

The first thing I noticed was the birds.  All the birds.  All types and kinds.  Flitting about. Chatting.  Singing.  All I could really see were the birds.  I loved being out at the cabin alone and watching them.  Getting close to them and just listening.  I was just out there being one of them.  Sitting with them.  Singing with them.  Listening to them sing their song as if they were awakening the forest.  Awakening the forest to the promise of spring and the summer that was to come.

It didn’t end with the birds.  I started to notice the first patches of green springing their way out of the snow.  Fighting to hold onto the sun and the life giving warmth.

Ahhh yes it was SPRING!  How many sonnets had been sung and written about just this moment.

And the waterfall…oh the waterfall!

What a sweet rush it was as it sought it’s way down the mountain with the first spring thaw!  Oh to have a thaw and a snow melt was a delight after the long drought and the waterfall sang it in it’s loudest voice!

It must have felt so proud to finally have a cacophonous voice again after several years of quiet waiting.  Like a mother showing off her new offspring the falls displayed their glorious brood of fresh snowmelt.  It was an uproar like a yard full of schoolboys at recess….in fact it felt like the whole earth was at recess this day and the birds were the school mistresses ringing the bell to play!

What a delight!

But nature was not done with winter….

It starting snowing that afternoon.  By evening it was a full deluge.  It was wonderful to sit in the cabin and watch the spring snowfall in such glorious proportions.  I thought it was going to have it’s way again but spring was strong in the air and putting up a fight.

The next morning there was a solid two inches on the ground and it seemed maybe the north wind of fairy tales was still determined to get her way.  Since I had actually managed to get both my goggles and my ski boots to the mountain at the same time I decided to go see if the fresh powder had made an impact on the quickly thawing runs.

It hadn’t.  By 10am any new snowfall was gone and spring had made a firm hold on the season and put winter  back in it’s place.  The mountain was a slushy mess before lunch and I decided to let spring have it’s way and put the skis to bed till the next year.

I took a hike on the newly plowed road up to Lake Mary and Lake Mamie to see how their emergence was going.  The snow had thawed around the army of canoes by the marina. They stood sentry like a pen of caged cats ready to pounce on Lake Mary.  Summer was coming and they were the first to show their attractive colors calling their suitors to the shore.

This spring vs. winter battle of wills continued for the next 3 days.  Each morning arose with the thrilling undressing of spring and each afternoon winter took it’s turn at trying to hold onto it’s winter skirt of the season.

I was content.  Content to watch this ferocious battle of wills every evening while sitting in front of my warm fire clutching a glass of red wine and being unsure of which noble contender I was hoping would win.

Winter into spring may be my favorite time at the cabin yet…..