Thats pretty much what I said when I visited the Beta Site today…the first time I’ve been up there since it changed hands. Specifically, into my hands. I could not help myself but to say “See that tree over there? Mine. That one? Mine. That rock? Mine.” I also scolded a bird for trespassing. I have a bit of a territorial streak in me.
I wanted to head up there for more than just childish selfish reasons…I wanted to see what the roads were like, and more importantly, to see how much humanity was up there. This is an are that is well past ten miles from electricity. The number of year-round residents isn’t going to be huge…though they are there. My concern was my two closest neighbors on the two properties that were kittycorner from me. Neither property showed signs of their roads being used. At least, not terribly recently.
Of course, the road to my property (and , wow, it takes some getting used to saying ‘my property’) was equally unused. The only prints remaining in the snow were from the local wildlife and the cattle that roam the area.
A stretch of the ‘road’ into the property. About 6″-10″ deep most of the way.
A few trees had decided theyd give their lives to block the road into the Beta Site and they will get removed in the spring when the snow melts. In the meantime, they do yeoman service deterring any trespassers.
And once you get to the top of the hill, you can see down into the proposed building area.
The remaining snow was very patchy in the timber and there were plenty of places in the pines where the ground was nothing but beds of pine needles on dirt. Sat there for a while and listened to the blissful silence of…nothing. No cars, no trains, no people, nothin’…just the way I like it. It was probably about 50 degrees and sunny at that point so it was pretty dang nice to be out there. A light pullover and ballcap were plenty.
One of the reasons I wanted to get up there was because I wanted to see where along the route would be the optimal place to unload the side-by-side and continue the journey. Later this month I’ll be picking up a trailer to haul the side-by-side out there. I need to find a spot along the route where I can safely and securely park the trailer and my truck while continuing on the side-by-side. The road to the Beta Site is an easy enough, though bumpy and twisty, ride in the non-snowy season. However, once the snow sets in theres some parts that are definitely sphincter-clenchingly treacherous. Certainly, throwing some chains on the tires of my small truck wold go a long way but there will come a point where the snow or other conditions call for something a bit more dedicated to crappy terrain. So..side-by-side.
There were portions of the property that were knee deep in snow and portions that were completely bare. I definitely should have brought along my snowshoes, as well as some gaiters and yaktrax.
And, one other reason for the trip – remote game cameras. I received a couple remote game cameras for Christmas and deiced to try setting one up to keep an eye on things. I don’t necessarily expect to see much in the way of trespassers at the moment, but I would like to get the familiarity with the system and process so that when summer gets here I can set up a network of cameras at the most likely access points.
So…long day. My plan is to pick up the trailer in three weeks and haul the side-by-side out there and get some miles and experience on it. I will also be dragging up a loaded Monovault with some essentials so that theres at least some resources up there in case I do actually have to hide out up there before I get the place built up.
But, I gotta say, it was a very novel feeling to know that everything I looked at belonged to me (for as long as I pay the $50 annual property taxes, anyway.)
Oh, and the road that you see in the pictures above? It’s steep. One of the other things I wanted to do while I was up there was make sure the realtor had removed their signs. They had not. But, as it turns out, those For Sale signs are made out of a corrugated plastic that was perfect for sitting my butt on and roaring downhill at breakneck speed before tumbling out into the snow. That was fun.
