Big Snow Sixteen

Where’s my red book bag?” I yell from upstairs. “How would I know, Leah? Find it yourself”, my dad yells back. Very flustered, I start to search the house looking for the bag. I end up finding it after twenty minutes. “Thank goodness”, I mutter to myself. It’s the first snowfall of the year, and my best friend and I made a pact. The very first snowfall that happened after we got our licenses would be the year we go on the hike. Not some boring old twenty-minute hike through the forest but a three-hour hike up one of

the biggest mountains in Canada. It is calling for twenty-three centimeters of snow throughout the day, so it will be awesome! As I finish packing my food, water, spare jacket, flashlight, mittens and socks, I hear the doorbell ring. I look out my window and see that it's Cassie. I open the door and let her in. “You ready for the Big Snow Sixteen?” she asks with a huge grin on her face. That’s what we call it, since the snowfall, and we can now drive,

since we’re sixteen. “You know it”, I say grabbing my things. “Let’s hit the road.

As I pull my red jeep into the parking lot, I see Cassie throwing everything in her bag. “You’re doing that now? Way to come prepared!” I say with a laugh. She rolls her eyes and grins as she finishes getting her bag ready. We get out of the car. It’s about a ten-minute walk just to start the trail so we both hit the bathrooms first. Thirty-minutes into the hike and I'm exhausted. I see Cassie breathing heavily also, so we decide to take a little break. “Why did we think this would be easy? I think I’m dying”, Cassie says

gulping down a quarter of her water. “I honestly don’t know, but it’s too late to turn back now,” I say zipping up my bag. It’s snowing quite a bit, but we are lucky there is no ice on the ground. We both decide after six minutes it is time to walk again. “Only two and a half hours left”, I say with a smile.

We kept getting closer and closer by the minute, but the snow and hail kept slowing us down. We've only been walking one hour and forty minutes, but boy, did it feel like an eternity. By the time we hit two hours on our hike we were soaking wet from all the snow. “Leah, can we please take a break? I can’t feel my legs. I swear they might fall off!” Cassie rants on. I agree, and we see a bench and walk up to it. We sit there for around twelve minutes and decide we should keep on walking. “The trail up the mountain is a loop

so it will only be an hour on the way back”, I say with some hope in my eyes. She just rolls her eyes. As we stand up a giant gust of wind comes rolling down the mountain. Just our luck, we are standing right by a humongous snowbank. It all comes tumbling down! Before we have the chance to move, we get pushed to the ground by pounds and pounds of snow!

I lay there freezing for three minutes. I could barely remember what had happened. I stand up and grab warmer clothes from my bag, when I realize I don’t see Cassie. “CASS!”, I yell. “WHERE ARE YOU!” “Over here”, I hear someone say quietly. I rush over and help her up. She was stuck under a bunch of snow. “What the heck happened?” she says angerly. I explain to her what happened, because she was facing the other direction when the snow fell on us. We both had snow all over us and decide we should walk home. Right as we were leaving Cassie stops and looks up. “Look at that”, she says pointing to whatever she had been staring at. I look up to see what she is pointing to. It’s a big brown cabin with a shiny red door. “Woah, let's

go see what's in it”, I say, not even looking back to get an answer from her.

“The snow must have been covering it”, I say to Cassie as we walk over to the cabin. “I knew there was going to be a lot of snow but didn’t think it would be that much. “What is someone lives in there? I think we should just go home”, says Cassie as she stops walking. I tell her no and I don’t stop. I do get an uneasy feeling in my stomach but brush it off. She sighs and continues walking with me. We get up to the cabin and I peek through the window to see if anyone is there. “I don’t see anyone in there. Let’s go in.” We pull at the door and, to our luck, it’s open.

As we walk in, a rush of warm air meets our faces. We look around and it’s the most beautiful cabin ever. It’s color coordinated, with deep blue couches and cushions, wooden tables and dressers. “I wonder why no one is here? Like this place is incredibly cool”, I say, walking around the cabin in awe. “I’m not sure?”, says Cassie. “We should stay the night here, instead of pitching a tent with this horrible weather. What do you think?” I agree to staying the night here, since the snow is falling harder by the minute. We walk over to the fireplace. I thought it was odd that the fire was going, but

it was freezing so I didn’t mind.

Ten minutes later, we stand up from the fire and get ready to unpack the food out from bags. I stop the zipper halfway when I hear footsteps coming from outside. “Cass”, I whisper. “I think I hear someone.” We walk over to the window and see a man who looks to be about six feet tall walking toward the cabin. We grab our bags and jackets and go out through the window. Luckily for us, the man was singing Christmas carols, so he didn’t hear the window open. We walk for about six minutes until we finally stop. We both look at one another and start laughing hysterically. “Let’s go home”, I say. “We have had enough excitement for one day!" Cassie nods

and we start walking on the trail back home.