Opening day silence

[chummer]

For those of you who have never experienced a " lake effect " snow - let me clue you in. Where Chummer lives is in a BIG-TIME snow belt. I worked on a power plant that was built very near where he lives during a whole winter. Several times that winter, when we came out of the plant at the end of the day ( after dark ) we stood at the base of a 60 ft. light pole in the parking lot. It had 5 of those sodium " yellow glow " lights at the top. When we looked up, we couldn't even see a HINT of light !!! It was a tough task to even find the row you were parked in because first you had to find the closest row to the plant - then feel your way to the number of the row you parked in. It was literally like being blind. This info is NOT an exaggeration. Being from the mountains of northern Pa., I thought I knew what heavy snow & " whiteout " meant. NOT EVEN CLOSE. In Chummer's area, getting 3 ft. of snow overnight and 2 days later getting another 18" to 2 ft. is not uncommon. I don't know how a fawn would survive floundering in that stuff.

That is cool you got to experience that. I assume you were in Oswego. They can get hammered but nothing like where my camp is and it is only 30 or so miles away. Last year we got 96" in a 5 day stretch. There are only about 300 people that try to live there year round, not sure how they keep their sanity. We loose a lot of deer to the snow plows. The road is the only place they can walk and the banks are to high for them to escape when the plows come by.

 

[PRK]

Chummer, I lived in Erie, Pa back in the early 1980's. Not far from where you are and I know what that lake effect snow can be like like. Went to a Buffalo Bills game at Rich stadium during a snowstorm. That was one nasty day.

 

[huntall]

wow.....we get like an inch or two of snow about every three years.
I couldnt imagine 96" in a week!

 

[chickenlittle]

I used to drive up 81 to get to school. Hated having to drive that in my 2wd S10 if there was lake effect. At least the Internet had become available back then and I could check the radar before deciding when/if to go. A couple time I drove down through the eastern Adirondacks to avoid the snow.

Where I hunt in PA, shots are down because fewer people hunt. We used to get the first 2 days off from school. I am not sure if many school districts do that anymore. Harder for people to get off work. And recently, our area went back to buck only for the first week. So where I might hunt the first 2 days, I'll head home Monday night unless we are cutting one up.

 

[SD51555]

I hate to admit this, because I know weather causes a lot of pain and damage. But I am a weather junkie. I would love to experience that. Perhaps not so much the aftermath, but regular weather bores me.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Chummer - Yep, it was Oswego. And I have to say, some of those white-outs were the scariest times I ever spent on the road. Some might wonder how we drove home that night from the power plant given that we had to feel for our cars. Well - we had to wait a while until it let up enough to see a car parked 2 spaces away. A drive that would have taken about 6 or 7 minutes took 1 1/2 hrs. We made a bunch of stops to open the car door and scrape with our boots to see if we were still on the road !!! Thank God it was a small country road we had to travel. To give readers an idea of driving in that kind of snow - pull your car up to 6" from a wall painted white ( in the dark ) and turn on your lights. Look straight out your windshield. It was a white blindfold.

One thing I have to say is the State of N.Y. knows how to move snow & clear roads. No messing around up there!

 

[foggy]

I can well remember a 3 day super blizzard some years back. Lived in a rural area. Power went out....and our wood supply in the house was getting low. Wood pile was 50 yards or so from the house....and after loading my sled with wood.....I was really glad the house was in the direction I headed. :)

Scarey stuff, those big storms. Traveled the upper midwest and parts of Canada for 30+ years in my sales jobs (much of it with rear wheel drive :() .....was glad to "get there" on many occasions.