Perfect End to 2010

The last couple of days have been sunny and temperate for December. Evvy and I have taken 2 hour snowshoe hikes both Thursday and today. These are the days where you can simply not step outside without saying "Thank You". Yesterday, we took a walk up the hill and beyond following game trails to a small brook. Just beyond a cornfield, at the edge of the woods, a virtual tangle of deer trails. I would guess five or six deer in this spot, who survived the not-so-great white hunters.

We walked around the deer playround for awhile, then made our way on to Derry Hill Rd. The Hooper Hill Hoppers have already been out with their groomer, getting ready for snowmobile season. We finally walked up John Stevens cabin. I followed someone else's tracks for a bit, but they lost their way if they were looking for the cabin. There had been several blow-downs out there, so losing the trail would have been easy.....if I had not been so familiar with the terrain. So I broke a new path around a huge fallen pine, and on to the cabin. I wished Mr. Stevens well, as he is buried there now, in his favorite spot. I think it is my favorite too.

Far Hills south west fence Today Evvy and I went to my other favorite spot, Fay Falls. Actually it was the lower falls. The falls were frozen solid. The pool below was somewhat open. It looked like a hot spring the way it gurgled. We moved downstream along the ice. Evvy broke through a couple of times but she didn't seem to mind. I followed a minute blood trail, that I deduced was a deer which had also broken through the ice cutting its leg.


White Pine with ice.

Fisher tracks

Evvy and friends at Far Hills Farm.

Evvy taunting the ice.

We continued downstream for quite some time. I wanted to find an otter slide, but I'm not entirely sure I found one. I did see something, similar to a slide, but it looked more like a "slip and fall". At last we came to an ancient logging trail. I decided to follow it knowing we would have to pop out some where on the Far Hills Farm. We did in fact break out of the woods in a neat spot. I wish I could say I had seen lots of game trails here, but the trails were of horses. The horses led themselves to a tiny pond at the bottom of a bowl. Evvy and I climbed to the top rim and looked to the west to see Alysson's Orchard and Westminster, VT beyond. I could have easily laid down on the snow and sucked the marrow out of that moment. Instead, I paid a visit to the two horses who(because they are people too). The two horses were munching what grass they could find. Neither was the least bit interested in me or Evvy. I hated to leave, but the reality of time is that we have to be somewhere eventually. So we made a northerly tack, back into the woods on a short bushwhack over barbed wire fence and stonewalls, and out to County Rd. I can't imagine a better way to end the year!