Snow, bears, and snakes!

We woke up to snow, not as much as I expected, but it was still flying out of the sky. Sweet Shyla gazed at the world in wonder. Just yesterday, it was warm and sunny, with Pasqueflowers opening their petals to the sun. Shyla must wonder what's up with the craziness of springtime here!

Snowbiking was quite easy because the snow was wet and sticky. I used my usual "springtime snowbiking trails", and we had tons of fun.

Shyla ran around like a lunatic. She has the spirit of seizing the day, that's for sure!

She even loves it when the wind is blowing snow sideways past us.

During our ride, I spotted a beautiful lattice of aspen twigs, covered in rime ice.

It was a beautiful ride. As we rode, I kept noticing the perfect snowflakes sticking to Shyla's fur. You can see one on her ear here.

Before I end this post, I wanted to answer a few common questions from the past few days of posts. First, some of you asked if I knew which bear was up and about in my photos. I believe that it was Tiny, a humungous bear who has tended to come to our area each fall for the past few years. His pattern is that he dens here, he wanders our forests in the early spring, and then he disappears until the next autumn. He has no white star on his chest, unlike our other huge male who I call Milton.

Last fall, Tiny checked out the den where I had a camera posted year around. He went into the den, which is a cavern below the boulder that he's going under.

He stayed in the den for a few minutes, perhaps "trying it out" as his den for the winter. As he emerged, he shook.

Unfortunately, he then departed and didn't return.

Because I check the den camera only once per year, it's date was off by 2 days (a malfunction) and by an hour. In fact, Tiny passed another camera a little while later. Look at how fat and healthy he was!!! I bet that he denned nearby.

Because I've gone 3 years with no bears using the den where I had a trail camera posted, I decided to take down my camera just in case it is concerning to the bears. I will go visit the den on a very cold day next January, when any occupants will be sound asleep, and I'll install a camera then if there are bears in the den.

The other question asked by commenters was completely different, about whether we're worried about snakes in the desert. We tend not to worry. We've visited the desert for several weeks a year for many years, and I have seen only one poisonous snake in all that time. It was a midget faded rattler - but it was out in the noon heat, a time of day when the dogs are never out running around in the desert. So, the odds of our dogs running into a dangerous snake seem pretty low.

I probably just jinxed us. I hope not!