It's the first day of a new year. We’ve got more than enough snow and it’s cold… VERY COLD! What a frigid entry into 2010. Tonight we’re expecting a low of 15 degrees below zero. Factor in the wind chill and it feels like 25-35 below. This weather is expected to be with us for several days. Uff da, this IS the frozen tundra you hear about. On the bright side, this will give us bragging rights for years to come as we tell everyone about how cold it was at the start of 2010.
Today I had two choices. I could sit inside where it’s warm, be a couch potato and watch football games all day, or go outside where it’s cold and get some exercise. I decided to strap on my snowshoes and go for a hike.
I’ve mentioned before the old Norwegian saying, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes.” I dressed appropriately, starting with long underwear, using layers of clothing, and topping it off with a facemask that I’ve used for cross country skiing, to avoid frostbite on my face. I was very comfortable.
I purchased snowshoes just before Christmas. I’ve been out on them several times and love it. I’d highly recommend it as an activity for anyone who wants to get outside in the winter, get some exercise, and enjoy nature.
Author Jerry Apps says, “Listen for the silence of winter, when the snow buries the land and the cold tightens its grip, turning breath into clouds and thickening ice on the lakes. There is great beauty in silence, something that we have little of these days.”
How true his words are. I have the good fortune of being able to walk out of my garage, strap on my snowshoes or cross country skis, and take off in any direction. Today I decided to head down along the fence line of the back forty. It didn’t take long before I came across animal tracks in the snow. I followed a pair of tracks that appeared to be coyotes. They were too big for a fox and a fox usually travels alone. The tracks disappeared into a neighbor’s cornfield that will have to wait until spring to be picked. There were plenty of other tracks to explore and I continued on. I love trying to read the stories written in the snow.
I was able to move easily over the crusted snow that had a two-inch layer of new snow on top. Before when I’ve tried walking through heavy snow, it’s been a real struggle as I kept sinking in. What a wonderful difference snowshoes make.
Whenever I stopped I would listen to the silence of winter that surrounded me. The sun was out, and the beauty of the snow-covered landscape with all the animal trails was exhilarating.
I continued on my hike and decided to head for Birch Hill and explore the places where I had spent many winter days in my youth. At one time, Trygve and Joel Thompson, along with David and I, built a ski jump on one of the hills.
I worked my way through the brush and trees, following a deer trail until I reached the area on top of the hill where we had constructed a scaffold about eight feet tall. We built a jump out of packed snow, farther down the hill. The hill was now overgrown with brush and trees… big trees. What do you expect after fifty years? Times change. It’s a good thing we were young and adventuresome. We were also lucky that we didn’t get seriously hurt. It looked more dangerous now than I had remembered. There was a rock outcropping along one side and trees had lined both sides of the jumping hill that we had cleared as best we could. I should also mention that the hill had a curve near the bottom because of larger trees that we couldn’t clear out of the way. It’s surprising that none of us ended up straddling one of those trees.
As I stood in the silence of the woods, I remembered how we crawled up the ladder to the platform on top of our rickety scaffold and launched ourselves down the hill and off the jump. I wondered if the rotting remains of the old scaffold was buried somewhere under the snow, like a lost civilization buried under volcanic ash. Just like those lost civilizations, only those of us who once played in these woods and hills know what we did here.
Others may pass through these woods and never know what adventures we had. Tracks in the snow disappear with the seasons. Wood from an old scaffold returns to the earth. New growth of brush and trees alter the landscape. Human intruders like me come and go, but nature remains the one constant, changing with each season. These hills and woods will remain long after my spirit has departed this world and my tracks are no longer found in the snow.
I hope we never destroy areas like this. It’s important that those who leave their tracks in the snow after us can also enjoy the silence of a winter woods. I hope they find and enjoy the beauty of nature that we found during our journey through these woods filled up with snow.
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