A Walk in the Woods

The sun was out, and the fresh snow was beckoning.  With at least two feet of fresh snow on the ground, I dug out my oldest snowshoes, the largest ones, and headed for a walk in the woods on the farm next door.

These are my original snowshoes, purchased at the locally famous Ellwood Epps Sporting Goods store on the highway heading north to Algonquin Park about 50 years ago.  I first used lampwick harness, then leather harness, which wore out several years ago, so the harness is new, but the snowshoes themselves have stood the test of time well.  Nowadays I only use these ones for deep fresh snow, where they work great!

I headed into the woods following the old tractor trail, the first part through very young Sugar Maples casting long narrow shadows.

As I entered the more mature woods, the fallen trunk of this big old maple had crashed almost to the ground now, after being hung up at one end for two years after it originally fell.

All around me the woods was white, lots of snow caught in trees or stuck to the western side of the tree trunks.

Hard to imagine a nicer winter walk than this.

With the sun only two days from the winter solstice, it was very low in the sky casting long shadows, even at 3 p.m.  And the dried rustling beech leaves will be there all winter.

It's amazing how snow manages to collect in big lumps on the branches.

Underneath this long lump in the snow is my spring Trillium log;  I always stop here for a picture or two in mid-May when the Trillium are in bloom.

Like this....

The tractor trail peters out, but the neighbours who own the farm have done a little wee bit of clearing branches to allow for easy walking through the woods.

And out to the edge of the field, where you have to cross an old stone fencerow.  This is the half-way point of the loop, and I'd taken 30 minutes.  I'm  wondering how much of that was stopping for pictures, and how much was breaking the new trail through the snow.  That always takes a little longer.  I'll take you through the second half tomorrow.

 Winter solstice is almost here!  And the days will start getting shorter.  The sun reaches its lowest ebb on Wed. morning here, about 5.45 a.m..  That's only 34 hours away, and then the days will start getting longer!  Yeh!