Unique Walking Condtions

[Snowshoe]

Sometimes in mid to late March, after some freeze/thaw cycles, we get a crust on top of the snow that is hard enough for people to walk on. Usually it's quite warm out when we can do that, around 0C or higher. This weekend we got the nice cold weather back and new snow but the crusts hold me up, I can even run on it.

So we decided to check out a pond some of my maps show in a big piece of property we walk. The pond is on some maps, not others, but the most recent imagery on google maps shows it and it looks quite rectangular, indicating a dug pond. Maybe. There is a pond in this property, more in the middle of it, dug to irrigate newly planted county forest many decades ago.

Anyway, it's hard to get in there any time of year but this. There are BIG trees down, brush, wet spots, tender undergrowth but with the deep snow and crust we can just walk over top of most of that. We didn't find a pond. It must just be a fluke such a geometric wet spot shows up on google. It is pretty wet in there. But it was so nice to be able to do that and walk off trail. We saw coyote and fox tracks, both probably from early this morning. WE could smell the fox, it's mating season for both coyote and fox.

[SunDance]

How cool....sounds like a fun hike.

[POPTOP]

That's odd that you could not fine it. Maybe it was underneath the snow/ice, hiding.

Sounds like a great walk though.

[Snowshoe]

By not find it I mean there isn't a pond. It's just a wet area. The google imagery was done in spring so a big wet area shows and it looks rectangular. Maybe there was a small irrigation pond back in the 1930s or 40s and trees blew down and covered it up, changed it, filled it in.