Local View: Springs up north are filled with surprises — 'and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it' From the column: "Everyone up north has their own list of calamitous mishaps and arduous and costly remedies. Every surge of spring optimism, it seems, is tempered by catastrophe." Written By: David McGrath | × "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The first 12 words in Charles’ Dickens’s “Tale of Two Cities” could very well be written about the north country every spring. The paradox hit me like a sledgehammer in April of 1986. I had just closed on the purchase of a waterfront lot on Bluegill Lake near Winter, and I planned to spend our first night “van camping” on our private piece of paradise.