Our paths through the backwoods usually lead us past nature at her best. Sometimes we find the evidence of man in stone walls, piles of rock, and trails enhanced with bridges and grading. At other times, the evidence is erosion from vehicles, excessively trimmed branches and trees, or discarded cans and bottles. Most of the larger pieces of human detritus we find are related to transportation: old cars and tractors. This was our first electric powered washing machine.

In a corner of a farmer’s field, now a forest marked by crumbling stone walls, we find remnants of a later generation which used the woods for a different purpose.

We found a set of multiple tracks on the trail last week. It appeared that multiple dogs and at least one person trekked through the back woods. We later learned a pair of dogs got loose down the road and people were looking for them.

The no-name pond struggles to decide whether to be frozen or liquid; snow cover is diminishing by the day as February proceeds to spring.

We came upon these small tracks in the snow the other day. We believe it is from a small rodent. The snow is about a week old and at least six inches deep. The creature making these tracks could not be very heavy; their imprints barely sink into the surface. You can tell where we and others have disturbed the snow on the left. The animal was likely moving at a pace where their rear feet landed on top of the imprints from their front feet to make the interesting parallel track shown.

 

This is the best view of the mid-day sun we could get on our snow-shoe hike through the woods yesterday. More snow tomorrow.