Wordless Wednesday

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.

Sound asleep

Today, we woke up well before dawn to drive up to higher trails and play in the snow in "Moose Land". We saw the sun rise from the car but this photo of K in the sunrise light was from a few days ago.

We all played hard.

And we enjoyed azure skies over the snow.

It was very hard work on a snowbike because a fresh and loose layer of new snow overlaid the packed trail.

I arrived home, ready to write a blog post. I settled into my spine-friendly reclining chair with my laptop on my lap, and I promptly fell sound asleep for a few hours! Sometimes, the body insists on resting... and there's no defying it.

That's why this post is so short on words. While I was sleeping, I kept hitting the "e" key and I ended up with pages and pages and pages of "e". It was pretty funny but would've made a boring post! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

The Duo woke me up in time to take them for a sunset hike.

On a separate topic, the Runner spotted a red fox in our clearing yesterday evening. They're rare in our small neck of the woods. Sadly, he didn't walk in front of a camera so here's a photo of the lithe fox who visited us a couple of years ago.

Isn't he handsome? I bet that he has a thicker fur coat at this time of year. I'm hoping that he comes back to get his photo taken!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The thriving bobcat and a Duo smile

Yesterday, I checked a wildlife camera and discovered positive proof that our bobcat is alive and well after he has stayed hidden for weeks. He finally visited one of his main scent posts where I've captured his photo many times over the past months. In fact, he even left behind a message.

He started by kicking back with each hind paw in succession, sort of like he was running with his hind legs.

Then, he made a "large deposit" at the scent post. That tells us that he had a big meal lately. He's doing well, I think.

Remember, just the other day, I noted that a deer sniffed this scent post that has been marked by many different species. The bobcat marks it most frequently, at least once per month and usually more often. Since September, mountain lions have marked it twice, a bear has marked it once, and coyotes have marked it twice. For some reason that I cannot perceive, it's a very important spot for the wildlife.

Later in the day, I took the Duo for a hike. In the non-snowy parts of the hike, I let R run off-leash because his elbow seems to be fine after the scare the other day. For safety's sake, I leashed him in the really deep snow to prevent the wild porpoising that hurt him the other day.

Near the start of the hike, the Duo waited for a recall. I cannot believe how tall R has become. He has had a serious growth spurt over the past couple of months ago at age 3! For him, the awesome part has been that the vet ordered us to *double* his food rations when he grew too tall and skinny. He loves that part!

As they sat stationary, I called them, using my customary "Dogs come!". For some reason, both of them stuck out their tongues as they accelerated out of their stay. Tongue flicking is a "calming signal". I probably sounded more emphatic than usual because they both blew off our first attempt at a recall by running directly away from me and into the meadow. Perhaps they were trying to calm me down with their tongue flicks. Whatever the reason, I liked the image.

Then, the tongues disappeared, and they sprinted. They actually came to me this time!

Later in the hike, just before it was time to leash him, R gave me this devilish look!

Yesterday, I was having a very lousy day in terms of my spine, with my lumbar bad disc causing electrical pain in my leg and a numb foot. That fall into the powder when I heard the moose during snow biking might have been the culprit.

My hike with Duo painted a smile back on my face, at least for a while. I love my furry buddies, even if their tongues don't compare to the bear sow's tongue who I captured with a wildlife camera last March!

A moose on the trails

Yesterday, the small herd of deer continued its tour of my trail cameras. The doe on the far left is the most curious of the herd. She sniffs every scent post. Here, she's sniffing a stump that's just out of the camera's view and has been marked by a bobcat within the past month.

Last night, it snowed hard for a brief time. I captured a classic winter view of a coyote passing through our clearing.

This morning, K and I headed out for our snowbike ride early. The trails were dusted with new snow - perfect animal tracking conditions. When we hit the main trail network, I immediately spotted the familiar tracks of our bobcat. He'd traveled our trails after the snow last night but didn't visit our clearing. I was happy to see evidence that he is still in our territory despite the extreme winter weather we had a couple of weeks ago.

I pedaled hard to make it up high in time for sunrise. It was worth the effort.

The promontory where we view the eastern horizon at sunrise is almost the exact spot where a mountain lion felled a deer last May. The memory of finding the deer carcass at dawn that day always simmers in my mind as I enjoy the sunrise. K thinks that it's her job to cover my back. This morning, she planted herself next to my bike and swiveled her head to and fro as she surveyed for danger.

Then, I asked her to climb onto a boulder for a photo. She loves towering over everyone from her perches.

When we rode onward from our viewpoint, we ran into the Runner and R. We are SO happy that R has had no limp whatsoever since the episode two evenings ago. In fact, we released him to briefly play with K.

They sprint so hard when they frolic that it's the most intense test that any injury can have. R passed with flying colors!

More than one of you asked if R was the only puppy in his litter with elbow dysplasia. When R was diagnosed, no other puppies in his litter had elbow problems. I haven't asked the breeder for an update. She said that R was the first puppy with elbow dysplasia anywhere in her lines. Based on how carefully she monitored his situation and examined the details of his condition, I believed her. It's one of those orthopedic problems, like hip dysplasia, that will be very hard to eliminate from dogs because elbow conformation is almost certainly controlled by multiple genes.

After biking with K, I headed out to my favorite snowbiking trails solo. I'd never ridden them in snow before this week, and I'm already addicted to them.

I started in an open area with aspen groves but soon wended my way deep into a pine forest. As I climbed, I heard an almost explosive snap of branch. I immediately knew that a large animal must have broken the branch - not a coyote or snowshoe hare whose tracks dotted the trail. I pulled my foot out of my pedal and tried to plant it. However, the snow to the side of the trail wasn't packed, and I fell into powder up to my butt.

As I scrambled out of the powder, I stared into the forest, catching a glimpse of a retreating hulking brown animal through the maze of trees. He's not visible in this photo - I was too late with my camera.

My first guess was that he was a moose. But, I also know that we tend to create mirages in our minds of the animals who we want to see. So, I was a tiny bit skeptical because my glimpse was so fleeting.

I brushed off the snow sticking to all my clothes, and I started pedaling up the mountain again. I emerged from the shaded pine forest into a spectacularly bright day. Just looking at the reflective snow from the shade, I felt glad that I'd remembered to wear sun screen.

I climbed past an abandoned mine with the old iron equipment scattered everywhere.

I emerged onto a windswept plateau, soaking up the stark beauty and utter silence. The voice in my head was having an argument. I wanted to go further but I was already out much longer than planned. Finally, prudence won. I turned around and started my descent toward civilization.

I careened downhill through the open meadows with tall aspen trees scattered throughout them and re-entered the pine forest.

I screeched to a halt near where I'd fallen into the powder while watching the moose retreat a short time earlier. Now, there were moose tracks stamped on my tire tracks. They came out of the forest, through several feet of snow, walked next to my track, stepping on it occasionally, and then re-entered the forest on the other side of the trail. Clearly, the moose had been on the trail while I was up on the windswept plateau.

Each of the tracks shown below was a couple of feet deep. Moose have long legs!

The moose walked next to my tire tracks, leaving a gift along the way.

So, my tentative identification of the brown butt that I glimpsed in the forest was correct. I saw a moose! I am aware that moose can be dangerous so I'll be on my toes during future rides on this trail. But, my overwhelming feeling is thankfulness that this species is flourishing in Colorado, and I was lucky enough to see one in the forest.