Second snowshoe of the season is under my belt. It was better than the first from a fitness point of view. Was out for an hour rather than forty minutes and able to go harder at it. Likely went twice the distance in that extra twenty minutes of time. The type of snow helped too. First time out was soft and fluffy and, despite having snowshoes on, I sank halfway up my shins. Today, the snow was harder. For most of the time, I sank no further than ankle deep.
The nice thing about nature in the winter. You are more able to get hints of the animals than in summer. Wasp and bird’s nests appear from their leafy hiding. Mouse and vole tracks can be seen in their little territories of shrubs and ground. Coyote and fox patrol routes come into view. You’re left with a real hint of their lives… even when they are out of sight.
For the first time, I was able to view a beaver from my front window. Looked out one day this week and saw the beaver on the edge of the nearest pond. Even got an ok shot of him with the camera zoom lens. He climbs up the bank at night and grabs a small tree from the edge of the forest. Then slides back down to the hole he’s made in the ice and pulls the sapling down under with him. Good ol’ Beaver.
What Will They Think?
What will they think in vole town?
To pop out of their crisp grass burrows
And see their interrupted pathways.
The soft network of voley footprints
Barely disturbing the softly fallen fluff.
Now invaded by the crunch of snowshoes.
My giant stomps cratering the virgin white
As a four lane highway
Blasting across their peaceful country path.
I turn back to examine their tracks.
Seeing how they lead this way and that.
But always returning to that small gap in the brown field grass.
Like a cowardly parking lot dinger of doors,
I decide to scurry away before they come out.
Hoping they won’t notice the paradise damage
Until I’m miles away.
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