Well! a first for me - nobody came to play! I figured the message might be : 'take a hike' ... so I did!! My objective was to make a good trail base so I could ski on it. Mission Accomplished!
The day was a little overcast and a VERY light drizzle started as I left the parking lot, but it all cleared to make for great hiking conditions. The recent rains that followed our monster snowstorm had packed down the snow so it was pretty easy going - can't even call it 'trail breaking'. Lots of tracks were evident along the trail: bobcat, fox, rabbit, partridge, and, I believe, otter. The otter tracks appeared periodically along sections of the trail where you wouldn't expect them, quite a ways from the river, but they matched the ones beside the river, emanating from a hole in the ice, and they showed the tell-tale slide sections on even the slightest downhill. Live animal sightings: lots of noisy birds hanging around at the start, the partridge which evaded my attempts to capture proof on camera, and chickadees - one took a nut from my hand but when I tried to get a picture, the bag of nuts spilled and then I think the birds were just waiting for me to disappear! That was actually a good thing because a light sprinkle started just then, which made me hustle to get back to the car - no sooner inside and the hard rain hit. I was blessed with a lovely outing and good luck!!
