Snowy Days Story

A few weekends ago I traveled back to home for a long weekend visit. On my trip home I was fortunate to take some wonderful pictures!!

The first set is a group of pictures taken around the house, mainly of the birds. With the new lens I was able to get some amazing shots.

The second set is from an outing Mom and I took. We rented some snowshoes, and went for a two hour hike through the woods. Due to the steep nature of the trail this isn't a path my parents could travel on cross country skis, so it was our first time.

We started the hike at an open pond, getting used the the snowshoes. Though I've snowshoed before, Mom hasn't, and we took time adjusting the shoes to fit perfectly. Never-the-less, I nearly tripped probably 50 times, but managed to stay upright.

The hike went past the pond, over to an open hill facing the ski resort on the other side of the valley. Progressing up the open hill, we passed over the tree-lined road, to the forest on the far side. Following the forest edge up the hill we found the start of our trail, though had Mom not been there I doubt I would have noticed.

The trail continues the rest of the way throughout the woods, moving up the hill, often with steep inclines. A couple of times we had to walk across narrow wooden bridges. The first large hurdle we had was at one of these bridges. A large tree had fallen over the very beginning of the bridge. The bridges were no more than a foot and a half wide, so walking across was already a difficult task. Trying to balance and make it over the fallen tree was entertaining.

After climbing the very steep section of the trail we found ourselves in an open area, accessible to perhaps park vehicles. We split from the road moving back the trail to stop at an outlook. Below us the cliff fell off a good 150 feet. Definitely a sight the camera could not capture.

Following the escarpment still further up the hill we made our way in to a less densely populated forest. Here all the trees seemed to start their branches up a good 30 feet. Noticing a cabin off to our right and some picnic tables propped up against trees we made our way over to the park road migrating between the seasonal camp sites.

As a child my parents brought me to this very park on a regular basis, and I have memories from old videos, photographs, and slides of the park, the playground, and a bright swing we sat on by the upper pond. Making our way out to this very area of the park Mom and I rested on the bright swing, attempting to swing with our snowshoes on.

Following the road to the other side of the pond, we walked towards our way back, passing through the playground. Getting a surge of energy I ran up to the monkey bars, only to realize I could now stand on the ground, and not even fully extend my arms to reach them. I still walked across the bars, then jogged to rejoin my mom.

The path we took at this point was to visit Mom's favorite pine stand. Walking in to a clearing the middle of the pines Mom and I stood listening to the birds. I then attempted to walk in the shape of a heart, and took pictures of my creation in the fresh snow.

Leading the way Mom took us deeper in to the pine stand. She has a wonderful sense of humor and told me she wanted to experience the pines, or embrace the pines (one of the two). To her that meant walking between the pine branches, where you couldn't really get through. I spent a good ten minutes with my forearm up over my face so I wouldn't get hit in the face. Later Mom told me "It's really fun to have me go through first so you get smacked in the face with the branches!"

But the smell of fresh pine, and the feeling of the long five-needle red pines brushing by your face... something everyone should experience in their life.

Coming out the other side of the pines we moved along to the road we had crossed at the very beginning of our trip and followed it back down to the lower pond. On a blue wintry day, with birds calling, branches blowing, and the company of your mom... who could ask for a better hike?