Fooling around near the Elkhart gas station a few days before Groundhog Day

I’d had my vehicle in the shop for most of January, and I had a groundhog to install, which meant my son, Devlin, and I hadn’t done any backcountry together going into the last weekend in January, and we had a Big White trip booked for then. We’d both earned our turns for ninety consecutive months, and losing the streak in January was just too ridiculous, so I brought our backcountry stuff with the intention of getting a few turns in on the Coquihalla as we drove up Friday night.

When we got there, it was raining and already thoroughly dark. I asked Devlin to check the high point on highway 97C and see if it’d be snowing there. ~1700m seemed like plenty, so we decided to do that instead. That was the extent of our trip planning; not even a glance at a topo on my part.

We ended up on the Golden Hills FSR, near the Elkhart service station. It was blizzarding pretty good, with drifts forming on the highway. Despite being quite high, the area is flat, with a bunch of closely spaced lakes. We found some junk barely steep enough to ski and called that good enough.

Portrait of Devlin

No one cares about the Golden Hills FSR, but what was that about a groundhog, you say?

Here’s the trip report that (sort of) explains why I ended up buying an inflatable groundhog.

The first thing that happens after I write a trip report is that I give it to my wife, Iva, who’s a professional editor, and she does a quick clean-up. I got the edited version from her, added the pictures, submitted the trip report, and went to bed.

“Did you really buy a 5-metre inflatable groundhog?”

I hid under the covers.

“…maybe…”

She really tried her best to get me in trouble for buying something so dumb but couldn’t get more than a couple sentences in before she’d burst out giggling and have to reset. She tried this four or five times, and just couldn’t keep a straight face. I told her she was on Team Groundhog, whether she admitted it or not, and she couldn’t help but agree.

“I love you, but this may be the stupidest thing you’ve ever purchased.”

It so isn’t. Not even close.

From there, I had extensive back-and-forth with Hangzhou-Jenor. They were super-accommodating with all my tweaks. I sent them all kinds of different pictures of groundhogs, as well as my own illustrations highlighting various things. I felt guilty about all of their time I was wasting and tried to compensate them for it, but they wouldn’t take it.

Pontificating about the shading under the mouth

Yes, I did draw this and send it to them to guide them in reshaping the arm

Moving the eyes

I bought some earth anchors, effectively miniature screw pilings, so that I could properly fasten it to the ground. Someone crashing because a loose inflatable groundhog covered their windshield is not something I wanted to be responsible for.

Earth anchor

People love the groundhog. Cars stop; there are usually people standing around and taking pictures. There’s a Reddit thread about it, and the Daily Hive took the picture from the Reddit thread and quotes from the thread and Facebook to write an article without having to do any real work. Iva started selling merch so that she could get me some for my birthday, but others have purchased it as well.

Enough words. Here’s the pictures.

For the record, I’m not making fun of those people that put up the Keep Christ in Christmas banners. They’re entitled to their opinion, and they can do whatever they feel is important with their yard. I’m entitled to my opinion too, and can do whatever I feel is entertaining with my yard.

I enjoy seeing the groundhog’s head when I wake up in the morning

View from the graveyard. My house is near two graveyards, and one gets a good look at the groundhog. It’s not my intention to make funerals weird, but we live where we live.

From across the street

I’m so glad I paid the extra $50 for internal lighting”

I’m not on Facebook, but I was sent this screenshot