Dreaming of spring

I hiked with a friend yesterday who mentioned that she'd seen a couple of these furry canines out on a frozen pond.

Here was the part that surprised me. She said that they appeared to be mating. I said "Nah, it's too early." Then, I did some calculations in my head and realized that it might be just the right time. A coyote's gestation period is exactly the same as a dog's, 63 days. So, nine weeks from now would be around the end of April - a perfect time to have a litter of pups.

That little vignette cheered me immensely. We usually have our roughest period of snow in the next two months - and I've been bracing myself for it. But, realizing that the coyotes are already making new life for springtime made me smile!

K and I mountain biked this morning, seeking out the rare non-icy places to ride. Near the start of our ride, we saw the moon setting into a cloud bank enshrouding the mountains.

At about the same time, the sun was rising and K glowed in its light.

I can't ride very intensely on our trails right now - the conditions are too icy and dicey so K and I play a lot of training games and I take photos while we play. One of my favorite games is asking K to make eye contact and then attempting to distract her with treats, sticks, and evil antics. She's pretty good at this game.

Then, after spending time with K, I pedaled on the roads to other trail networks that have had better snowbiking conditions in recent days. Unfortunately, however, I'm not sure that good riding conditions existed anywhere today. Winter had truly taken hold of our forest again, together with the evil snow-blowing wind.

It was so cold that my camelbak froze, and I couldn't drink for my entire ride. I've been noticing that I get cold much faster when I can't drink due to a frozen water supply... probably because mild dehydration impairs circulation.

At least the sky was blue! And, I could visualize the vivid color of the wildflowers, including Columbines, that bloom under these aspen trees in the spring and summer.

Despite pedaling like a fiend, I was slogging through the windblown snow slowly enough to notice things like the pitch tubes on pine trees. These sappy tubes indicate that a pine tree is infested with bark beetles. In the one below, the tree successfully ejected the beetle which was frozen in the sap.

Alas, although the tree was successful with that one beetle, it had so many pitch tubes that I'm sure that it won't survive. It's sad to see vast swaths of forest being killed by the beetles.

I didn't last too long snowbiking on the trails today. I was too cold and the conditions were frustrating. So, I headed home to the warmth of the fire place.

In the late afternoon, the Labraduo and I headed out for our sunset hike. My energy was lagging but R's wasn't! How does he balance on his two front legs like that?

We headed up to Hug Hill to watch the sun set. The wind was buffeting R's ears, giving him the wild look.

K stayed out of the wind - she doesn't like the wind or the wild ear look.

We watched the sun set in the bracing wind before heading down the hill toward our fireplace.

I found myself dreaming of warm spring days and picnics on this hill.

Are you noticing a theme here? I'm dreaming of spring.