The unveiling of the paw

Yesterday evening, K and I made a big leap, and we made it to our sunset viewpoint for the first time in about 10 weeks! It's not a long walk but it's been beyond K's reach for a long time. We both savored the moment.

This morning was earmarked as "bandage removal time". So, prior to our morning walk, I took off K's (hopefully) last paw and forearm bandage. I put on a dog boot to protect her tender paw from the crusty snow on our morning stroll. Despite the boot, K was obsessed with her newly unveiled paw.

Although I think that the Ruffwear boots are the best for real hiking, K has always hated them. I had a notion that after 10 weeks in casts and bandages, K would no longer notice a ruffwear boot. Wrong. Here, she told me that she was incapable of walking with a boot on her paw.

She finally convinced me to remove the darn thing. She seemed much happier... but still obsessed over her paw. She hasn't seen her paw in about 10 weeks, and now it's missing a toe. I bet it's a surprising apparition in her mind!

You can also see in the above photo that K's left front leg has atrophied tremendously due to all the time it was in a cast. We have a long rehab ahead of us, but I am SO happy that we're probably embarking on that journey (assuming that the last pathology test doesn't show anything ugly).

Our stroll was short because I wasn't sure if K's paw was hurting her. I covered up her paw and headed out with R for a snow bike ride. Wow, the view from Hug Hill awed me with a veil of winter clouds curtaining the mountains below a brilliant blue sky.

Then, R popped up from the far side of the summit like the Flying Nun.

Here's the flying nun herself.

Pretty good resemblance, don't you think?

Our winter winds that relentlessly buffet us from the west have arrived. The Chinook wind becomes a constant companion when outdoors in the winter, muffling all other sounds and sapping my energy reserves. It's a flow of energy rocketing at us from the mountains, often whooshing so hard that I can't stay upright on my bike. I always wonder - Where is that energy coming from? If we're being infused with wind energy, someplace else must be in an energy trough...

After R's short ride with me, I went out on my snowbike to explore some of the most obscure trails that I know. To my utter surprise, as I struggled up a steep and snowy hillside, I spotted extremely fresh bear tracks. They were so fresh that the snow under the bear's heel was still loose, unlike old tracks that are frozen into place.

A smallish bear had walked through this snow shortly before I arrived. His hind track was only 6.5" long, unlike last week's bear whose tracks were somewhere around 7.25-8" long. Based on information from bear biologists, I am certain that today's track must be from a small male bear because the females probably snuggled into their dens a while ago.

I followed the tracks for a short distance, getting a good idea of the general area that the bear was aiming for. However, I didn't follow the tracks very far because the bear didn't have a big head start. Now, I have another area to search for a den later this winter!

Here's an example of an old track. I ran across a preserved track from the bear who came through a trail in the area more than a week ago. Last week's bear was big compared to today's visitor. The hind paw track has my chemical handwarmer next to it for scale (the handwarmer is 3.25" long).

I'm starting to wonder how much of my fall/winter I'm going to spend following bear tracks through the forest! But, I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it. I get a peek into a bear's life, and that peek never fails to fascinate me.