said as Judith refastened her seatbelt. “Let me see that map.”
The road was easy to find, not quite a quarter-mile from
the service station, and on the north side of the interstate.
It, too, had been recently plowed, and the going was relatively easy. Or seemed to be, for the first half-mile. Then the
pavement suddenly ended. Renie found herself driving on
bare gravel.
“This is stupid,” she complained. “If they can pave half of
the damned thing, why not the rest?”
“Maybe it’s a matter of jurisdiction,” Judith suggested. “The
state or county may keep up part of it and the rest is Forest
Service. I’d guess this was originally a logging road.”
“Probably.” Renie had dropped down to under ten miles
an hour. “I wish Bill were here. I don’t like driving in snow.”
“You’re not in snow. It’s plowed.”
“So far. But who knows what’s up ahead?”
The narrow road zigged and zagged, climbing higher into
the mountains. During the brief intervals when the cousins
could see more than a few feet, they noticed that the trees
grew more sparsely, and were of a different variety than the
evergreens below the snow line. Judith counted lodge-pole
pine, western larch, Engelmann spruce, and Noble fir.
“You should have let me drive,” Judith said. “I could have
taken the Subaru. What if we get into a snowstorm on the
way home this afternoon? You’ll panic and kill us.”
“I’ll panic and let
looking rather grim. “Bill said the Chev would hold the road
better because it’s so big.”
Heavy iron gates stood directly in front of them. Fortunately, they were open. Renie drove through, accelerated up
a little rise, and hit pavement again. “Thank goodness,” she
murmured.
They were no longer on a road but in a sweeping drive
which lead to the lodge and a large parking area. “Who owns
this place?” Judith asked, peering through the foggy clouds
at skimpy views of weathered logs and stone chimneys.
“It’s privately owned,” Renie said, heading for the nearest
parking spot. As far as the cousins could tell, no other
vehicles were present. “It used to belong to the park service
years ago, but it’s changed hands several times. Some group
in the city owns it, and at one time, Frank Killegrew
was involved in a partnership with other downtown investors. Now, it’s mostly doctors and dentists who rent it
out to private parties. Not just conferences and retreats like
the previous owners, I gather, but ski groups and church
organizations and whoever else is willing to pay the freight.
This new bunch shut it down last summer and did some
renovations to bring everything up to speed. I don’t think
the lodge rental comes cheap.”
