ICE 'N EASY

From the slow tilting of the earth that brings us autumn, and "the frost's on the pumpkin now",  on through the first timid stirrings of spring, which at our altitude can  blithely arrive, only to be put on chill again 'til months that are knocking at the front door of summer in other climes (this is no country for impatiens), we see frost, cold, and ice in all their forms. 

Ice on the windshields (put those wiper blades up!), ice on the walkways and entrances, so slippery that a large dog pulling you home on their leash can make you think of exciting new winter sports--who needs a sled?  And for the middle-aged and older-inclined folks (who, me?), thoughts of bone strength and density become more pressing; i.e., if I fall on the driveway, will it break? (no, not the driveway)

The importance of ice on lakes, especially in terms of our water supply, that's quite a hidden story for most of us.  We know Serene Lakes ices over every year,  some years earlier than others, and some years thicker than others.  As a  mother who has "mother-henned" 4 children into their 20's, I've always been cautious about trusting the ice, not wanting them to end up like the Edward Gorey character, "W is for Winnie, embedded in ice". Neither did I want them to end up like the ill-fated kids in the Mother Goose rhyme; "Three children sliding on the ice, upon a summer's day, as it fell out, they all fell in, the rest they ran away..."  Now maybe if it were three developers... but I'll save that for another day..

There are a few things to consider about the ice on bodies of water up here, if you're anticipating pulling water out of lakes/impoundments/reservoirs over the Winter months. First, there have been no studies done on how various scenarios affect available water.  Ideally, you'd have a long term study, carried out over the course of years, as so many variables would feed into any attempt to model how much water is bound up in unyielding ice each winter.

This must come as a complete surprise, not to mention a colossal headache to Royal Gorge LLC.  When Todd and Mark Foster, and Kirk Syme purchased the Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort and all the other Donner Summit and Serene Lakes properties, they might not have been aware that water was a big problem up here.  But in their worst nightmares, did they ever contemplate the fact that Winter, when all that snow is piled in massive and generous heaps, has actually less available water than other times of the year?

What a developer's dilemma!  Even if you siphon huge amounts of water off during Spring snow melt, and who knows where you'd store it, unless the storage impoundment is very deep, it won't do anything for your proposed development in terms of water flowing out of taps and flushing toilets once the big freeze arrives.  No matter where you build a dam, the water is going to be just as prone to icing over,  and, funny thing about dams--a lot of times you're required to draw the water way down before winter, for flood control purposes. With water levels drawn down for safety, well, do you wear figure skates, or hockey skates? 

It's certainly not Ice 'n Easy for Royal Gorge LLC on Donner Summit.