The great thing about getting more snow recently is the opportunity to snowshoe or cross-country ski right out our door. We have Forest Service land just down the road from us with several trails leading down to creeks and across the nearby hills. With snow comes signs of winter animal activity all around us. In summer, it can be hard to see tracks in the dirt, but the snow provides a wonderful canvas to leave footprints and tracks, and thus use my detective hat to figure out what’s been wandering around these woods along with myself. Some are obvious, small footprints separated by a long space where the animal has hopped signifies the snowshoe hare is nearby. Huge hoof-like footprints that sink deep into the snow tell me our resident moose is still around. While it’s rare to actually see wildlife out in winter, it’s fun to see what they’ve left behind that signifies that they too, are still active.
And of course, us humans and our domestic animals aren’t shy about leaving our own tracks as well. I can tell that my neighbors have been out with their Yaktrax as I see their bootprints with the coil in it going up the road. When Bryon and I go snowshoeing, we leave a rather wide, beaten down track of that show our fellow snowshoers what path we took. This can be really helpful when we are the first to break trail up in the Indian Peaks wilderness, because sometimes, we don’t know the route, but we know we can always get back to our car, by just following our tracks backward. Where it really gets confusing is when a bunch of people go out, get lost, and you have six different snowshoe tracks going in various directions. That’s when a good old-fashioned compass can still be super helpful.
And who hasn’t left the ultimate artwork and design of a snow angel in the snow? I like to say that our dogs, Simon and Shawnee, do the same thing, as they love to flop into the snow on their backs and wriggle around with their feet and legs going every which way, making their own doggy snow angels. Snow brings out the kid in all of us, and provides its own form of adventures, whether it be tracking animals or making snowy art.
