After getting side-tracked by fisher tracks last week in our quest to explore the northwest corner of Nelson, we returned this last day of 2012 to try again. We were joined by Wendy Byrn and a new hiking friend, Lucy Ryder, whom Al met at the pancake breakfast on Saturday. Lucy and her husband just bought a house on Granite Lake and she was eager to get to know more of our little hill town.
We parked at the end of Kendall Lane in Sullivan again, but did not allow ourselves to be swayed by tracks before we even started down this class VI road. Recent snowfall necessitated the use of snowshoes, at least for Wendy, Lucy and me. Al has some big boots that work well if the snow isn't too deep. It's hard work getting used to moving in the snow after more than a year of no snow, so we were working up a sweat and using some muscles that haven't been used in a while.
At first the tracks we saw were old, probably from the day before, but filled in from the windy night we had on Sunday evening, but soon we saw fresher tracks--deer, lots of deer tracks. Then the reward for our labors: we discovered bobcat tracks! Backtracking the bobcat, we found where the bobcat had rolled and urinated in the snow. We also found snowshoe hare tracks that had crossed the bobcat tracks.
Further down the hill, we repeatedly crossed fresh deer and bobcat tracks. It would be nice to be able to observe all the movement that the tracks indicate. If we could have a vantage point to sit quietly and watch, the winter landscape would come alive.
Our intended destination was Otter Brook and Ellis Reservoir, but we had reached a dead end--Kendall Lane seemed to peter out and end in a wet area, but no sign of either Otter Brook or Ellis Reservoir. We began to think that a second week would go by without reaching our goal. Lucy had to get back to her family and Wendy decided that she would go with her. Al and I determined to go forward, in spite of Lucy's concerns that we would get lost or not get back before dark. Wendy was confident that we would be fine, but Lucy had never hiked with us before. She was not used to our comfort level in the woods, even when we don't know exactly where we are and where we're going.
But we showed her what we planned to do and how we would get back to my house and promised to let her know when we got back so she wouldn't worried. Before we parted ways, however, we looked at a spot which Al had found, where we hypothesized an owl had touched down to catch an animal under the snow and taken flight again. We could see the where the wings had brushed the snow.
The open area where we parted ways was like a bowl, with a ring of trees around it. The conifers grew together in a thick grove and every bough was weighed down with snow, but there was nothing for it. We had to go through them to get out of the bowl. Checking our compass, we took a southerly track. We crossed the bobcat tracks again and again. That cat certainly roamed back and forth through this area.
When Al took one route and I another, we soon lost sight of each other. We used our owl calls to keep track of each other and stay close enough together. Finally, we made our way out of the thick spruce grove and into more mature mixed hardwood and conifers. Al cleared a spot on a rock and took a seat to wait for me. I thought it was about time for a break, but that isn't why Al had stopped. Without a word, he facilitated the opportunity for me to discover another point of interest: a deer bed, with what looked like orange urine. Orange! Threw me off--certainly not the typical color of urine. Al surmised that it could be musk and sure enough, one smell and his supposition was confirmed. Another piece of knowledge that I didn't have before: deer musk is orange!
I still needed to take a break, but we could hear running water at last. We had found Otter Brook. In fact, we found ourselves at a spot on the brook where we had been two years before, near where we saw a moose on another snowy day. We crossed the brook at an old mill site, scrambling over snowy, ice-covered boulders. It was a little hairy at times, but we made it safely across. Time at last for a break. We made a little fire, and ate our snacks. We warmed our hands and watched our damp clothing steam. Amazing what a little fire can do--just enough to give us the warmth we needed to move forward.
Oh, I forgot to mention that we found coyote tracks on the boulders on the stream as well as more bobcat and deer tracks. Our final trudge was through an area east of Old Towne Road that had been logged two years before. In fact, we met the skidder in this same area on the day that we saw the moose. Now the area was beginning to fill in with the early succession shrubs and trees. Al commented that this would be a good area for blackberry picking in the summer.
Finally, we reached Old Towne Road and met Al and Ellen Guida, the owners of the land over which we had just crossed. We had a nice chat with them then walked back to my house for our usual after hike cup of mint hot cocoa. Safely back, all in one piece after another satisfying lovely day.
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