Zoomies!

Our world is cold, gray, and snowing again. The snow is so deep that it's extraordinarily hard work to try to leave the one packed trail. You can see K ahead of me this morning, during a brief flash of almost sunshine, as she cantered along on the easy path.

Aside from a slightly upset stomach, K has made it through the ten days following her second round of chemo feeling very strong. On a hike yesterday, she got the zoomies, tucking her butt under her body, and running at top speed to and fro. Even R couldn't keep up with her! Then, she jumped up and broke a dead branch off a pine tree to play with. She sprinted past R, hanging the stick off to the side to lure him into a game of chase.

Although I couldn't stop myself from worrying about her leg, I laughed out loud to see my girl so very happy!!! I didn't take a single photo - I just soaked up the joyful moment.

For the past couple of mornings, I've spotted coyote tracks on the packed trail. Moreover, after yet another drought in terms of wildlife photos, I captured a coyote photo with my trail camera. I can only imagine how hard it is for our wildlife to travel around the forest right now so I'm not surprised that he was on the beaten path.

I haven't seen the elk since the day after the storm. A dozen elk lagged behind the main herd, digging down to eat in a meadow despite the deep layer of snow.

The rest of the big elk herd had made tracks toward lower elevation feeding grounds. They're smart animals, and they walk in single file lines in the deep snow. Here were a couple of their lines.

The sun on our mountains was so gorgeous that day. Yes, I'm yearning for another bluebird day like that one!

I spent time on our trails with the Duo today and captured some funny closeup images of their faces. Here, I focused on the snow clump on K's nose.

Do you need any more proof that R is a Cracker Critter than the next photo?

He was being incredibly earnest, meeting my eyes, but had such a maniacal look on his face!