Snow makes the ground look matted moulted. The trail is mainly marked by dogs also sign of deer and turkey. Watching the squirrels going from branch to branch leaping to the next branch.
The rustling of the shingle oak leaves in the wind. The crunch in of my boots on the snow the pitter patter of my dog scampering back and forth in the woods.
A wave of wind rustles the shingle oak leaves then it dies down then it rustles the leaves again and then it dies down.
A stand of rough leaf dogwood 1” in dia. With the mixture of E red cedar. White snow covering the ground white and blue sky.
Gray liken growing on the bowl of a 7” E red cedar.
Gnarled black cherry with the bole splits in two about 3' feet off the ground.
To my right the ground falls into a draw to the left continuing rough leaf dogwood and a scattering of E red cedar.
As I walk the sun is breaking through a layer of clouds the opening snow fades away into grass it has melted off.
The trail I was on now connects with the main trail and I am now on that trail heading W.
The main trail again is then covered in snow and I take the side trial off to the right which is on the other side of the draw which I mentioned before where the black cherry was.
I am now coming across some rabbit tracks. To the NW I look to the sky which is blue with a spattering of high clouds.
I cut off the side trail into the woods which rolls north. Ground is mostly covered in snow the snow covers the fallen trees. It is a round ridge as I walk to the draws. I don't see any sigh of human activity there are no human foot prints.
I lean up against a hop hornbeam which is next to a large fallen tree it is a hard to say what kind of tree it was all the bark has fallen off, white oak is to the East and a large bur oak is to the west near the creek.
In this area there is a ½ to 1 inch of soft snow and under it there is 1 to 2 inches of crusted snow.
We now have come up to a place has come where the squirrels have dug into the snow looking for nuts. I have no idea how the squirrels know where to dig but my dog has a lot of fun checking them out.
As I come to the end of the ridge down at the creek there is a root wad stuck into the air, dirt is still stuck in the root wad the tree has been down for a long time. The tree has fallen into the creek and branches are broken off on the other side of the creek. What bark is left is covered by conk type growth. The creek is frozen but I can see water running under the ice.
4:39 PM looking back south the sun is still up in the air a ways so there will be more sunlight for a time now. The sun is shinning through the 1000 s of branches most of the trees are 3” or less. Looking up at the canopy there is room for trees to occupy. Most of the trees are small a few large. The little trees have not taken off to occupy the open canopy.
Instead of going back the way I came I decided to parallel the creek gong along the edge and I will turn up to the top of the ridge when I get to the other side.
My dog runs out on the ice of the creek by a 2 foot waterfall she tries to stop but just slides in the ice. But being on all fours is no problem for her. When she does stop she runs back to me.
Heading back up there are a lot of small gullies criss crossing the ground. The way I negotiate these is by grabbing a sapling or vine hold on as I jump over them. But I check to make sure they aren't dead before I apply weight.
My dog is really getting excited now running up the side of the hill and back to me. She loves to hike in the woods with me.
There is no E red cedars growing on the side of the hill they grow up on top.
I come to the trail where there is a set of foot prints and I stamp my foot next to it and compare footprints the treads match so its mine. And now I am following my trial back.
As I hike along that trail I come to the realization that my foot prints have stopped so I back track to where my foot prints end and I cut into the woods.
Now I come to the root wad where I first wanted to take a photo and I figured I could find my foot prints again and continue following my way out.
I pass a white oak which is leaning about 30 degrees. The whole tree is leaning and the bowl of the tree is not carrying any of the weight of the tree. I will measure the dia with my hand and I come up with 30 to 32 inch dia tree.
I see 2 turkeys fly into some trees it is 5:00 now so it must be time to bed down in the tree.
Flowing the main trial the south facing slope is clear of snow and the north facing slope has a lot of turkey tracks in the snow where the turkey went into the trees.
