Monday, January 6, 2014

Snow Beasts!

It snowed another 8-10" last night, and has snowed on and off (whenever we're under one of those lake streamers) all day today.  It was so snowy that our snowshoe hike was cancelled!  Lots of snow, but no safe parking.  So I went snowshoeing in the woods by myself and soon encountered the 'snow beasts'.

It was slow going, even on larger snowshoes.  I sank in about a foot in the very light powder snow, the accumulation of two nights of new snowfall.

But once in the woods, where there's little wind and more shelter, the snow was piled up on every branch, forming the huge white snow beasts I've come to expect, especially down in the swamp.

This one looked like a huge white rodent perched on a branch behind these two trees.

And any fallen or leaning tree, with more surface to catch the snow, accumulated large piles of the white stuff.

It's not really a swamp, though in spring there are some wet patches and pools, but it's a crowded mix of new growth, some planted pines, and a few dead trees still standing.  It seemed to catch the snow in all directions, on every branch.

Snowshoeing depends heavily on the snow conditions.  With a bit of an icy crust like two weeks ago you might walk right across the surface.  This was the opposite, and in the swamp the snow was at least 2 feet deep, and sometimes 3 or more.  I sank down a foot to 18" with each step, and that gets very tiring.

So I didn't go far, but turned around and passed these other snow beasts on my way back to the trail I'd made on the way in.  It's breaking fresh trail that's the hard work; once back to my earlier footsteps it was reasonably easy going.  Even one pass with snowshoes makes it enormously easier for those following.

These two looked like huge hippos, perched on the branches of fallen trees.  A very snowy day for a walk.



9 comments:

  1. Snowshoeing sounds like fun, if it is a warmer day.. That's a lot of snow there and all the snow creatures hanging around.. What fun! Have a safe and warm week.

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  2. The snow beasts look beautiful and thankfully are harmless. ;) That would be difficult to make a trail in the fluffy snow. We had rain here tonight but it's cooling down fast now and we'll be frozen over in a few hours. It reached +8 which sure was nice for a few hours.

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  3. That's a lot of snow. It snows here almost every other day but the snow never accumulates more than a few inches.

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  4. You definitely have a lot more snow than we have. Sinking 18 inches with every step would be very tiring indeed!

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  5. Looks great. And you found an albino capybara!

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  6. Oh lucky you, to get such lovely heaps of snow! Monday's rain ruined ours here in northern NY, and now what's left is frozen hard enough to cut our ankles when our snowshoes crash through the crust.

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  7. WOW---that is ALOT of snow... Not sure I've ever seen THAT much at one time/one place... We are having that frigid weather here now --and our temp this morning was minus 10 (F) --which is extremely RARE for us. We got a couple of inches of snow ---which is pretty --but nothing like what you have... WOW---I'm impressed.

    Stay WARM.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  8. OH, just look at those snow beasts! You have soooo much snow there!

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  9. That is a lot of snow. Crazy. We barely got any snow this time around, surprisingly. Just ice in spots.

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