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Valley Life: Winthrop

January 4, 2023 by Ashley Lodato

Photo by Ashley Lodato
A mysterious snow sculpture was illuminated by a groomer at the Power’s Plunge warming hut.

I’m not often up and about during the wee hours of the night, but when I am I almost always see something unusual. The night has a life of its own, all shadowy and grayscale.

Last week I rode a night shift with a Methow Trails groomer. At the Power’s Plunge warming hut the snowcat’s headlights illuminated a different sort of snowcat — one regal and sculpted from snow and gleaming in the spotlight’s beam. And sporting, inexplicably, a horn from the center of its forehead.

Except — it was explicable, I learned, the moment I told anyone else about it. “Oh, that’s the such-and-such from some pop culture thingy,” they said, in essence. Everyone but me, it seems, knows the origin of this feline-ish snow sculpture. Except — the internet does not, at least not when searched with terms like “cat unicorn” and “feline forehead horn.” (And it’s not Baby Yoda, so don’t even bother trying to convince me. After spending Christmas with my 11-year-old niece I know a Baby Yoda when I see one and trust me, Baby Yoda this is not.)

I saw other cool stuff that night. Coyote scat in the classic tracks: “brown wax,” Nordic skiers call it, for those who don’t step out of the tracks quickly enough. Dozens of little rodents scuttling in and out of their subterranean tunnels. A big pine across trail — a tree that fell in the forest, with a 4-foot cushion of powder muffling its crash. I saw no big cats other than the snow sculpture, but that’s probably just because all the cougars were out visiting their pals who are holed up under people’s decks along the West Chewuch Road.

The next day I got a different kind of grayscale experience, in the form of some Methow Valley publications from the 1980s. My longtime friend and even more longtime Methow Valley visitor Steve Walker is parting with his stash of recreational pamphlets he collected during his early visits to the valley. There are articles about skiing, hiking, horseback riding, snowmobiling, rafting and fishing. There are public service announcements warning about knapweed, wildlife encounters, and wildfire danger. There are ads for food, lodging, and services.

The publications are photocopied — or even mimeographed — and they are almost all in black and white.

The monochrome versions of 40 years ago look different than today’s glossy brochures with their full-color high-resolution photos but the message is the same: no matter the year, there’s magic in the Methow Valley.

Filed Under: VALLEY LIFE, Winthrop

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