SnowTracks

About SnowTracks

There is a half hour before sunrise, after a storm quits, when the snow along Highway 107 north of Merrill is still unmarked and everything reads blue. SnowTracks is usually the first thing through it — plowing driveways and lots, opening walks, laying down salt and sand where the shade keeps ice in business past noon. A winter here is a long accumulation of small decisions: where to push, where to pile, when to come back for a second pass once the wind has had its say. Lincoln County can hand you a foot overnight or an inch an hour for two days, and both need answering. By breakfast the only evidence of any of it is a driveway that is simply clear.