Today was a fine and warm and pleasant early spring day, and a good day to go for a big hike. The nights have been cold, the days warmer, and the snow has set up well, so that although it is still several feet deep in places, and a least a foot in most places, you can walk on top of it.Spring snow is the best hiking.
After a relatively successful earlier walk demonstrated that conditions were good, Haggis and I decided on an expedition to the Howes Pond basin. We started out on a snowshoe trail, which was firm and pleasant, but soon realized we could hike anywhere we wanted.
The snow and ice covers all the wet spots and underbrush, and so is in some ways easier walking than in summer. This first shot is of the pond, which is shallow, a lead in the ice which we crossed on a snow-bridge. The next shot is of the old beaver lodge, which seems disused. We chatted later with the landowner who said he had had some beavers trapped close by a while ago because they were flooding the road.
Then there's a shot of Haggis running the snow shoe trail.
Finally, mud season is here, and the roads get sticky in the afternoon or in the rain which comes every few days. This mud will stay with us until the ice that is below the surface melts, allowing the water to actually go somewhere. This is what a dirt road looks like in Maine in mud season. Click on the image to get the full effect. This, and the snow and ice, is why we drive four-wheel drive vehicles. Aimee and I used to have to drive three miles of a dirt road like this to get in and out when we lived at the Bale House. Here at the "New House" which is actually 109 years old this year, we only have a quarter mile of mud to get through before we reach blacktop, and that's not so bad because it's steep and drains well. The ruts in this mud were only about nine inches deep at the most.
This was a good walk, and I even managed to buy a third of a cord of very nice dry firewood from the landowner, who logs this forest lightly for fuel and sells it. I was glad to get it because my pile was almost out. With that La Nina, it's been a cold snowy winter, and I used quite a bit more than I thought I would.
Now, after walking three miles and stacking firewood, I'm nicely tired.
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Welcome to our Farm Blog.
The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.
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