High Mountain Ranger Cabin

We drove up the snowy, winding road towards the cozy A-frame cabin. It was the first time Missy and I went to the Airbnb ranger cabin on High Mountain. Our schedules aligned in this rare instance, and kiddo was with their grandparents. We thought that we would get some snowshoeing in, so we bought used snowshoes when I was getting the kiddo’s ice skates sharpened. Turns out, I suck at hand sharpening skates. Uncle Buck agreed to my poor craftsmanship and sent me to the sporting goods store. Uncle Buck also told us about this ranger cabin. Uncle Buck went on to claim how he invented how to sharpen hockey skates on Wayne Gretzsky’s skates back when he played minors in town. I laughed at him as I usually do. Could not help but wonder why he was sending me elsewhere to get the kid’s ice skates sharpened when he had personally sharpened the great ones.

We continued driving up the switchbacks in roughly 5” of new fallen snow. We saw the ranger cabin roughly 2 switchbacks up, so we pulled over and decided the snowshoe adventure should start now. We grabbed our backpacks, put on snowshoes, and got a hand of going uphill in pretty short order. We were going at a pretty good clip with me breaking trail and I stopped for a beer break and looked behind me and Missy was nowhere to be seen.

I didn’t panic, just had to go back where our trails separated, and follow the other one. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. No so on the easy peasy. I was having a lemon Wit beer. So yes on the lemon squeezy. But, I just followed my own tracks back to the truck. No Missy tracks were found.

Had I made up going up High Mountain with Missy? I got in the truck and started it up and looked around the passenger seat. No other set of snowshoes was found, but I did find her watch, her sunglasses, and her purse. Her backpack was gone -thank the Yeti.

So, I sat in the warmth and collected my thoughts. I have lost my Missy and it is getting dark. I have a working truck with three days of food. Where would Missy have gone? I got it. She took a different trail to the cabin and the wind, which is always blowing here, swept away her tracks. So I took the two remaining switchbacks in the truck and arrived at the Airbnb ranger cabin.

The cabin was great. Totally used to be a fire lookout cabin. No electricity. No CB radio. My cell phone stopped working at the bottom of the switchbacks. No way to communicate. I started the fire in the fireplace as a beacon to Missy and I popped a beer. Gotta drink em before they freeze and explode.

Waited as long as it takes to drink 1 beer on the comfy couch. I got worried. I threw on some extra logs on the fire and got my snowshoes on and went to look for Missy with my headlamp. I found a pencil and made a crude map on a notepad I found in the Kitchen showing where I went to look for her. A nice note I also left on the counter saying I’ll be back before sunrise. A personal note in cursive to Missy, “I have the beers, if you want em, hang tight here.”

I set out heading down the first switchback. It was not long, cutting across the switchback, when I shut my headlamp off. I could not see the light from the fire in the cabin. I sat in the dark awhile and listened for Missy. Her snowshoes should be making noise. Her headlamp I should be able to see. Nothing.

The Northern Lights were beautiful. They arched over where I thought the cabin was. I looked behind me and the wind was quickly erasing my prints. I decided to breadcrumb my trail better. I broke branches and boughs as I traversed. I left beer cans. I was running out of beer cans. So I upped the drinking part of my game. We came with a 12-pack. I left the cabin at 8, now 7. Turned my headlight back on and quickly made it to the switchback road. I crossed it and was aiming for the next switchback road where I parked the truck the first time. I went more slowly, wondering why I didn’t bring those hot packs that you shake the activated charcoal bag once exposing to air and they get warm. Those were awesome when hunting in late fall. I made it to the spot where I first parked the truck. No Missy. I didn’t pack any food, water, or toilet paper. I packed beer, a compass, and a fare. I thought this was a good spot for the flare. I shot the flare into the air and it was quickly overtaken in beauty by the Northern Lights. I popped a squat.

No Missy. Getting back was easy as I could faintly see my prints, broken boughs, and 7 beer can trail. I could faintly see the fire of the cabin and realized I was about a ¼ mile away. I turned off the headlamp and again listened and looked. No Missy. There was this metal screeching noise I could not figure out. I had collected 7 of the 8 beer cans, so something must have the 8th. I ran to it with my headlamp off. That was when I first thought back to the Airbnb description. I remember reading, “We have a natural hot spring nearby, check it out by going down the way you came 500 feet.”

That would be about here and where I dropped beer can 1 of 8. Didn’t see it with the headlamp. I heard the metal screeching noise again, and closer than before. My mind raced. What critter likes beer cans and makes a metal noise? I could come up with many insects, but they would be around in late fall. Then I got it, goat hunters.

Humans hunted mountain goats on High Mountain. I knew they did it on trips of a week at a time. Maybe someone knew of the ranger cabin, saw the fire, and told Missy how to get there. I got excited and stepped right in the hot spring. In the hot spring the beer can was floating. Man, this would have been fun with Missy tonight looking up at the stars. 500 feet soaking wet to the cabin would be easy. I got out of the hot spring and started sprinting to the door. I got to the door, swung it open and into the warmth. In the cabin I fed the fire, stripped, and sat next to the fire.

I heard the metal noise inside the cabin. Stark naked I look up and saw a ranger in full uniform on the comfy couch spinning his revolver and making that screeching noise. He said, “Missy told me she came up here with someone.”