Attack on Fort Juniper

I did all I could to make sure no one found my secret hideout.  It is not visible from the trail, and I always cover my foot tracks when I leave.  

Whenever I go back to work on Fort Juniper, I always tell it Thank You for still being there.  Yesterday my gratitude was premature.

Yesterday's melting roof tops, slushy parking lots and blue skies told me the snow would make impeccable packing.  I took my big red shovel, a window for the north wall, snacks, water and a PBR to the site.  I knew I would be there all day.

I was a little hesitant at the fact that I would have to bust down part of my north wall in order to install the window at the proper height, but I knew I could rebuild that section quickly enough.  When I got there, however, I realized someone already busted that wall for me.  Mr. Sun was the culprit.

The attack from 40 degrees and too much sun on Fort Juniper.

So at least I was mentally prepared for the damage.  That part of the wall was going to come down anyway.  This also taught me a valuable lesson about building snow forts.  As I stared at it in the sun, I knew I had to redo all the walls twice as thick and twice as dense.  Mr. Sun would NOT ambush Fort Juniper again.

I got busy right away and reinforced everything.  I even changed the floor plan.  I honestly surprised myself with how quickly I worked, but I knew that the next day would bring more cold weather, so I had to build as much as I could that day.

But construction was efficient.  Instead of packing on handfuls of fluff, I was pressing on shovelfuls of solid snow.  I used quite a radius of ground snow for material.  This is how I left it.  I know, I didn't even get the window in yet!

After the rebuild.

I know, it doesn't look that much bigger, but hey, it's tougher!

As the winds turned colder, I packed up to go home.  I was soaked anyway.  On the way I took a loop around to Lake Fanny Hooe and caught this sunset.  

Pink skies over Lake Fanny Hooe.

The snow has been melting for the last two days, but today we got just over an inch.  I have only three words for that: LET IT SNOW!!!