With the reality setting in that no one was going home for Christmas, the scary proposition of having to spend a whole continuous winter in Corner Brook was here.

This was especially daunting because I'd really been ramping up the avoidance of winter in recent years. Taking a short birthday trip to Sydney in November, going home for Xmas and then really pushing working from home into January, steadily taking a trip in March every year with my last scraps of vacation days, followed by another trip in April chewing up nearly half of my vacation days as soon as they re-upped with the new fiscal year.

It was almost to the point that I wondered whether I even get to complain about the winter here anymore. I felt bad for the friends and coworkers that have 6.5 months of never-ending Corner Brook hopelessness.

The first Covid winter started out alright. December was wet and without too much snow, leaving me to continue getting away every weekend as I tried to stock the cupboards with happy memories before the dregs of January, February, March & April.

Down in Stephenville, the wet early winter weather complimented their old army base buildings perfectly. The above "Mole Building" is easily my favourite in the town. It used to be an army barracks where fighter pilots and other army men would stay below ground, ready to go at a moments notice if someone were to fire upon the base in Stephenville.

Yes, this is where you would have found Maverick and Goose.

Throughout the years, Stephenville has paid steady dividends in terms of abandoned buildings to check out.

Yet again, I'd recently noticed another hidden Stephenville building I didn't know about, one that would make for a decent weekend target.

Not the most gripping interior, but there was free wifi.

Across town, I had also taken note of this hole on a previous biking trip.

(I'm actually riding on this exact platform for one of my falls in that fail BMX section that I made like five years ago.)

Pretty, pretty sweet.

I have to thank the provincial government for their continued policy of tearing down only the above ground structure and leaving me somewhere to snoop around amongst the mossy and gooey basement.

It was the whole of Western Newfoundland and Central Newfoundland that was getting a late start on winter, so the next weekend I headed up to Springdale for a bike ride on the Ward Harbour forestry/cabin road that continues northeast once the town ends.

Goodness gracious did I get covered in dirt and grime cycling on this slick road, haha.

Eventually I came to Salt Pond City, a cabin community about 10km/6mi up the road.

Boy could I have used some sun to illuminate the old island shacks and snow covered hills out here, but at least it was pretty in real life.

The sun did make a short appearance on the way back to Springdale.

Another weekend and now a trip down to Point au Mal and Fox Island River, opposite the Port-au-Port Peninsula. I went for a walk out on the seaside spit where the Point au Mal Provincial Natural Area used to be, amazed that I was able to walk along the ocean so comfortably on December 19th.

I highly doubt there are many better December 19th's in seaside Point au Mal.

Christmas dinner was really nice at the house in Western Newfoundland, and it was fun to exchange gifts on actual December 25th instead of a week before.

Another fun thing was that it was actually 8°C/46°F in Corner Brook on Christmas Day and it wasn't raining or snowing. It was doing that Corner Brook thing where the ground remains wet because the sun only comes out for 10 minutes all day, but regardless, I had check off a thing that rarely happens on December 25th here - outdoor BMX riding.

December would end with 13 bikes drawn on the calendar and only 9 hours and 10 minutes of skatepark shovelling noted.

As we rolled into January, the odd, light storm would come here and there, but at the same time, the snow piles were minimal for this time of year.

And with such little snow, it was very easy to stay completely on top of clearing the skatepark. Especially with how it didn't develop an ice base over Christmas, since I never left and therefore never allowed the ice any window to establish itself.

I have no words for a January 16th like this in Corner Brook. This lack of adherence to abysmal winter conditions was like finding walkability in Houston or a shark in the Great Lakes.

It was so nice that my idle hands even went and shovelled Stephenville! Ahahaha.

January would end with nine bikes drawn on the calendar and 19 hours and 55 minutes of skatepark shovelling.

As we rolled into February, days with wet mix put the kybosh on biking, but still, all I had to do was push through three months and soon I would be riding again in May? Hard to complain about that!

We were even dodging storms and sending them to the other side of the island!

That's the other side where they're always begging for more snow, so you can have it Kim, Rosie, & Fantauzzo. Be my f'ing guest!

We actually ended up catching some of that February 7th storm, plus "the snow machine"¹ of onshore squalls was finally turned on. A single 10-day period in February brought the snow piles from stuff you could drive over, to snow piles at waist-height.

1 - The 14 feet of snow a year that Corner Brook gets isn't solely from absurd snowstorms, but also thanks
to when it isn't storming, the space between is filled with never-ending snow thanks to onshore snow squalls.

There was a point where I wondered if we might have the easiest and most pleasant winter in the history of Corner Brook, but February sure tried its damndest to get us past whatever amount stands as that lowest snowfall total.

Februarys here average 30.5 inches of snow and February 2021 had 43 inches - which is not terrible by Corner Brook standards - but still an adjustment from the precedent this winter had set.

This February had really prepped me for a brutal March, April, and possibly May. There was no way it was possible that Corner Brook would have such a lovely late start to winter, then also say an early goodbye to winter and the worst months² here.

2 - The worst months here are #1 March and #2 April. NUFD (Not Up For Discussion)

What do you think, Kingsley?

Oh wait, this was the second time I shovelled on February 28th alone, lol.

And then, just like clockwork, the coming of March brought hope and the confusing fact that maybe there'd only be a single month's break from biking?

February only saw four bikes drawn on the calendar, but here I was, already 1/1 for March.

One of my favourite annual benchmarks came on just March 10th, when the side snow hills reached their highest, but the sun was out and after keeping up on shovelling, I had my own little warm enclave with dry ramps.

In Corner Brook, it's still another month before you see natural grass or pavement following this point in winter, then another month before the streetsweepers and rain rid the town of the dust, sand, and grime that accumulate each winter. It's hard for me to believe the lifehack I discovered here to have clean, summery, Californian-like pavement available to me in March.

As we cruised past the Spring Equinox, not only did the winter weather ease off and mercifully give us sunshine, but it was slightly like a mainland turn towards spring. This was a change from every transplant to Corner Brook - and some Corner Brookers - looking at their social medias in late March every year and seeing people out doing yard work and drinking on patios everywhere else, while our 14-day forecast remains soul-crushing.

There were another two or three passing storms to come in April, but just as easy as it was to cruise through this four month recap in five minutes of reading, the winter was over and I thanked my lucky stars it wasn't one of those early November right through to mid-May, heartbreaking winters.

What a Godsend of a Covid winter.

(By the way, if you're wondering, March had 18 bikes drawn on the calendar, but March 10th 2021 was apparently so nice that I double-dipped.)