Two Snowshoe Trips to the Lake County Demonstration Forest

Of course!  Now that winter is almost over (I hope), I suddenly become interested in snowshoeing.  It's been a long cold winter but it's almost done.  Meteorological Spring has arrived (March 1st), the Equinox has gone by (March 20th), and the snow is starting to melt.  But before it all melts, we needed to get some snowshoin' in.

On Wednesday, March 20th, Thunderdog and I celebrated the first day of spring with a walk in the woods: the northern, 1.5 mile loop of the Lake County Demonstration Forest.  And, because we JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF SNOW NOW, we went back on Thursday morning for another mile on the southern loop.

o hai Thunderdog!  

I bought Joe a new camera for his birthday, so he gave me his old one.  SO much better than my cell phone camera!  Although you'll probably see better pictures eventually, please be patient with me as I figure out how to use it.

Happy first day of Spring!

Ah, spring.  The birds are singing!  The grass is rising!  Verdant blooms and warm breezes and...

...nope, still over two feet of snow on the ground and freezing temps.  But it looks nice in pictures, eh?

First beings on this path

Thunderdog enjoyed both of our hikes, but it was hard work for her.  If she stayed on the path (well-snowed over, but underneath the snow was somewhat packed from earlier snowshoers) all was well.  But if she went off the trail?  In she went up to her shoulders.

We snowshoed 1.5 miles on Wednesday afternoon - the Orange Trail, if you're familiar with the LCDF.  On Thursday we snowshoed .9 miles on the River trail (the Blue one).  Both were untrodden upon, with the exception of the section of the Orange Trail that is part of the Superior Hiking Trail.  That one looked like it had seen visitors within the last day or so.  Hardy folk!  As with every other time we've been there, the forest is eerily quiet and we didn't encounter any other critters.  No wait - we saw a Downy Woodpecker, pecking away at the trunk of the birch tree.

What's THIS???

I'm so glad I got this picture.  Whenever Thunderdog hears/smells something interesting in the snow, she will unreservedly and enthusiastically plunge her head (and whole front half, if necessary) into the snow.  She'll root around for a while, and when she backs out she's covered in snow and perfectly happy.

 

Okay, it was a nice day

Ah, I can't complain.  I got a call from a good friend at about 5:15 on Wednesday.  She was driving home from work and talking on her Bluetooth.  She asked what I was doing - I said that I'd just gone snowshoeing for an hour or so on the Superior Hiking Trail.  I am a lucky, lucky person that I can do this.  Here's to getting out there and enjoying it!!  Spring!!  Come to me!!