A Treehouse, a little you-and-me house

Laurel wanted to surprise Morgan with a day of sledding down Lincoln Gap Road followed by a night in Fern Forest Treehouse. Lincoln Gap Road is closed from Thanksgiving until about Easter, depending on the weather, but the brave and fit hike up and sled or ski down, navigating the hairpin turns or joyfully careening into a snow bank. A couple years ago our son Will hiked up with his puppy Rowdy, and Rowdy got so excited that he took off into the woods and disappeared. For days Will tried to find the little Hungarian Moody, but there was no sign of him. Fortunately, he was wearing a collar with a tag, and a week later a woman in Warren called to say she had found Rowdy shivering and hungry on her front porch. Somehow the pup had wandered over the mountain and into the village, managing to outsmart coyotes, fisher cats and foxes. Instead of the Lincoln Gap Road, Morgan and Laurel accidentally took the Appalachian Gap Road, which stays open all winter for commuters from Addison County on

I'm always amazed when people ask to stay in the treehouse in the middle of winter, but Suzanne and Patrick are used to roughing it. They've slept in a water tower in Mendicino and in a sugarhouse in southern Vermont. Patrick's a big guy and by his own admission generates a lot of heat, which is good because Suzanne is as tiny as a little bird and it was plenty cold their first night in the treehouse. Patrick runs a CSA in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, supervising the vegetable fields in warmer weather and tending the animals in winter. Suzanne is an art therapist who appreciates nature's aesthetic beauty. They had no problem with our tricky driveway in their huge SUV, which they rented for the trip. They're the kind of folks who said no to a red Mercedes SUV because it was too showy and went with the black Ford Explorer for the same price. Me? I'd have flashed that Mercedes right up to the treehouse...but that's another story. I met Suzanne and Patrick at the

Renee and Stacy braved snow and wind to spend a chilly January night in the treehouse in celebration of Stacy's 30th birthday. They stopped in Woodstock on their way up from Greenfield, MA, where Renee gave Stacy a snowshoe lesson. It was after nightfall by the time they found their way to Lincoln, and their trusty Honda was not willing to climb the steep driveway to the house. They had enough energy left to hike up, packs on their backs, and snuggle under the down comforter in the treehouse loft for the night. In the morning we greeted Stacy with a birthday candle stuck into a fig muffin and sang her Happy Birthday, a little off key. She didn't seem to mind. These were two good souls. Renee does organic farming, and Stacy works for a nonprofit, helping underprivileged children. We enjoyed their company and wish they could've stayed a little longer, but they promise to return in warmer weather, and maybe they'll try a trek up Mt. Abe.

We were quite surprised when Colleen and Jay signed up to stay two nights in the treehouse just after Christmas. We'd had some snow, and the early winter nights were getting cold. But the treehouse looked sweet outlined by colored lights. They drove up from Brooklyn in Jay's 1996 Volkswagen Golf without snowt ires, stopping for a bite to eat along Route 22A. It was after dark when they arrived in Lincoln, getting within fifty yards of our snowy driveway before they skidded off the road into a snowbank. A neighbor came to help, and AAA managed to pull them out by looping a band around the old car's rear tire. There was no way the Golf was going to make it up our steep driveway, so H followed them to the local library, where they left their car in the parking lot, and he hauled them and their cross-country skis back to the house in his pickup truck. That night Jay picked some tunes on H's guitar and we drank a couple beers and got to know each other. Colleen is a freelanc