The Old Road

Once we went to the camp in winter. It was after the state had started to build the ski lodge because my dad parked car in the new parking lot. It was before they fixed the main road and changed access to the camp, because then we could have parked on the side of the road and just slid down the driveway on the sled.

It was very cold that day. It must have been late in the winter for the snow was crusty on top and granular underneath. It must have been a Sunday because my dad worked at the store six days a week.
Access to our camp was by the "old road" that ran parallel to the highway, just down over the bank. It served as a driveway to the camps back several hundred yards from the road. on state-owned land. Now I think it must have been a railroad grade during the time when the campsite was a lumber camp.
My mother had made chili to take with us and had used ground venison instead of ground beef. My dad put the pot of chili on the sled, along with some other supplies we'd need to have our meal and we set off on the old road.

It was quiet and still in the woods that day, the only sound came from our footfalls through the snow. With each step, you could anticipate the crust giving way and then the yielding of the softer snow underneath.
Our trip down the old road seemed to take forever. In summer, my dad let Chris or Tim practice driving on the old road. "Watch for the ruts," he'd say. Tim and Chris didn't come on this winter trip. Just Mom and Dad and Paul and me.
I was surprised to see the outhouse out in the open on its pathway as we moved toward our target. In the summer, it was hidden from view by leaves on the trees. The cold was creeping through my soggy mittens but we were almost there.
Turning off at the pathway that led to camp, the pot slipped off the sled, tipped and chili spread across the snow like red lava. My father was annoyed but mother said there was still plenty to go around.
The thought of the deer coming upon the bonus of chili on top of the snow worried me. Somehow it was wrong for the deer to feast on chili without knowing they were eating their brothers or sisters.

It's like when I make chili with TVP granules instead of ground meat and I don't tell.