Annie's Orchard

About Annie's Orchard

Where the Clark Fork River spreads into its delta before reaching Lake Pend Oreille, the orchard rows here go dormant under a snow that falls heavier and stays longer than almost anywhere else in the state, the Cabinet Mountains holding storm after storm against the valley. Annie's Orchard clears the driveways and lanes across that same ground once the fruit season ends, working through a panhandle winter that can bury a lane in a single overnight system. The lake nearby rarely freezes all the way across, and its open water keeps the air just heavy enough to turn every storm into wet, deep snow that needs clearing more than once a week some months. Between the orchard rows and the river bottom, the crew keeps the access lanes open the way it keeps the trees pruned — carefully, row by row, until the whole orchard is reachable again. By the time the trees bud back out, the drive has stayed clear all winter long.