Here's a funny-face boulder I found in the woods today. Looks like his eyes are closed and he's sleeping until spring. He'll have to wait a bit longer: forecast is for below zero again tonight. But up into the 50s by the weekend! Promises, promises.At any rate, this cold-again weather after rain has firmed up the snow pack beautifully. I can move through the woods without snowshoes, and much more quietly, too. No carrion eaters at the deer carcass today (does a chickadee count?). There's nothing left but bones and hide. There were lots of coyote, fisher, fox, and mink trails in the marsh, but none of them approached what was left of the deer. Actually, it looked like the coyotes had other things on their minds beside eating: multiple tracks leading to a spot with a lot of commotion. Several times. Could they be mating? Were they fighting? It's also possible they were somebody's dogs, dancing and prancing around the way dogs do. I'll never know, but it's fun to puzzle over it.
I also saw many mouse tracks today, stitching over the inch of new snow. I was just commenting to a friend that I hadn't seen their tracks for a month or so, figured they'd constructed their tunnels down under the snow and they'd stay there until snowmelt. Maybe that day-long rain we had last week flooded their basements.
I am putting together a list of "must paddle" waterways in the Saratoga region in conjuction with the company that put on the NE Paddle Show last weekend. Do you have suggestions you could send me?
ReplyDeleteLeslie Miller
Residence Inn Saratoga Springs
518-886-0656
Indeed I do, Leslie! Most of the posts of my blog describe an area that offers the finest paddling I've ever known: the 3-mile stretch of flat water that flows between the Spier Falls and Sherman Island dams on the Hudson River, accessed off Spier Falls Road in Moreau. Forested mountains that come right down to the water, rocky promontories and woodsy islands, marshy spots with little streams for losing yourself among buttonbush. A veritable Garden of Eden of native wildflowers and trees, some you won't find anywhere else around here. Great spots for jumping off rocks into water, a couple of primitive campsites, and it seems to offer good fishing, too. Bald eagles come down from Alaska to feed here each winter, and some stick around all year.
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