J started pioneering in the road and the driveway in the winter of 2004. I met him in July of that year. By that point he had cleared enough to put the first few support posts in. At this time we could only get about half way down the road and had to fourwheel onto the lot. He would spend days out there, camping in the wall tent and drinking his BV. The posts that support the deck are made of trunks of either spruce, hemlock or cedar. He was able to get down to bedrock to lay them. There are 12-15 posts, all with 45s for support. The trunks came from the property and he had to cut each one to size to create a flat surface for the first floor decking. They are beautiful, it is a shame that they are mostly skirted in but you can still go under there to admire them and they provide a more than sturdy foundation for the cabin. We decided to keep the 45 degree thing throughout the cabin for detail work.
I wasn't able to come back to see J and the cabin until January of 2005. By this time J had finished the posts. We were still four wheeleing in from the "road" which we could only get down about half way in the truck, it was rubber boots the rest of the way. We decided to go to the lake with the dog. The lake was frozen and we dared each other to go out farther and farther to see where the ice would break. Then we realized there was a wolf on the point and he was barking at us and easing his way out onto the ice to check us out. Our dog took off towards the wolf and we screamed to get her back. She changed her mind about half way towards the wolf, turned around and came back, best decision she ever made. We put her in the truck and went back out on the ice. The wolf had company, slowly about six or seven more wolves came out of the trees and into view. They also made their way out onto the ice. They were all making noise and keeping an eye on us.
After about an hour of watching them emerge from the trees and play on the ice, four swans flew right over us in the still frozen air. We could hear each movement of their wings. The mountains and the lake were covered with snow as white as the swans. The swans disappeared into this as they flew away, but not their wing beats.
Eventually, the group of wolves made their way back into the tree line except for the first one we saw. It stayed right on the point barking and barking. We were getting cold sitting there on the ice so we decided to go for a walk up the stream where the swans had come from. As we made our way over there the wolf followed us, staying about 50-100 yards behind us but barking the whole way. When he couldn't see us as we would go beind a tree or a corner he would come in closer but move back when he could see us. We didn't walk too far mostly because we were being followed by a wolf whose barking cut through the cold quiet. But the wolf was behind us where we had to go back towards the truck and the dog. We just went about our business and the wolf kept his distance and an eye on us. He went back towards the point as we made it back to the lake. The dog was waiting for us in the truck and we made our way back to camp through the snow. We drove by the "road" to the cabin, letting the cabin rest till spring.
