Sun and Snow

It was cold, but the sun was shining and makes for a nice day. Max and Maya took me for a long hike on snowy trails for a good six miles.

We made the first tracks on most of the snow we encountered today. Someone had been out on cross country skis, and we encountered one other person walking a dog, but most the trail we covered was virgin snow, except for wildlife tracks.

Walking in new snow is like opening a new jar of peanut butter and being the first to dip into and disturb that smooth, untouched surface. After Max and Maya and I had passed, you could tell that someone had been there. We mark up a trail pretty good.

The air was cool enough that the snow was still on the trees, yet where the sun was hitting the ground melting was happening. The ground that had been pretty muddy a couple days ago and it still was under the snow, which was really just acting as a blanket. It hadn't been cold enough to freeze the ground and any standing water wasn't solid enough to hold me. It's supposed to warm up this weekend, so I expect this snow will disappear quickly and we'll have a nice muddy mess that will eventually turn into spring.

Walking through snow is tougher, but this snow isn't all that deep in most places and the dogs provide a lot of the forward momentum that the snow robs from my stride. We scared up a few deer at one point and Maya pulled even harder than Max. I stumbled at one point on the trail and dropped the leashes, which were joined together. When I had fallen while walking Sparky he came back to me and tried to help me up. Max and Maya took off, either unaware or unconcerned that I had fallen or perhaps just glad that I was no longer holding them back. Their leashes were joined, however, and they didn't get far before they went on different sides of a tree and got abruptly stopped, giving me a chance to catch up and grab the leashes.