With temps rising into the 40's I knew that the snowshoes would collect snow pack as I walked. Lucky me, however as the guys with the 4 wheelers had been out tearing things up on the neighbor's land. See the oldest brother says it is trespassing and gets upset. The oldest brother lives 4 hours away. The younger brother that lives there lets his work pals [some who are of dubious character] take their UTV's and 4 wheelers out and rip up trails.
The local law says if one brother says they can be there, it is not trespassing. I've talked with the UTV dudes and they know I am out there most of the time. We've run into each other a few times. [Only because I allow them to see me.]
We talked on Sunday while I was out walking Charlie. I was happy they worked up the trails in the woods. Charlie and I could walk in packed down snow.
Charlie was ecstatic. He ran like the dickens up and down the slippery mushy trail. We hadn't been on a long hike since the cold spell. I walked along trying to ID trees and just watching out for coyotes.
When we finally got down to the creek and valley, Charlie took off like a bullet and charged through the creek and scrambled up the opposite bank. He was chasing a turkey.
Tiny dog on top of the stream bank. One of the places where the 4 wheelers have damaged the soft bank of the stream. I'm the shadow. Charlie spent a long time watching the turkey as it flew across the valley.
We headed upstream back to our land. The going was easy along the creek and got harder once we headed up my old snowshoe trail which was pure mush now.
Step, slide, step, stumble,
it was like an incredible work out. CrossFit had nothing on deep mushy snow! Balance and leg strength!
I thought we'd have it easy peasy when I reached the summer meadow. Alas. Not so.
Poor Charlie. Being a Low Rider presents issues in deep snow. But he went snow swimming.
He was still hunting turkeys. He'd pause every once in a while and scan the trees. Or perhaps it was squirrels he was watching for.
He was dragging butt by the time we got home. And I was tired of walking like a drunken sailor.
I'd taken my little red pocket camera and for some reason I'd bumped the tiny switch on it to log my gps coordinates. I never do that . However, it was interesting to find out that the elevation change from the creek at the muddy bank to the house was 323 feet in elevation change.
Lastly. I got bored and decided to order a couple of signs of my own. Back by our fence line where the not so nice absentee landowner put up his signs. He also has a deer stand setup to shoot on my property. I will re-string the barbed wire and have a few more tricks up my sleeve to make deer hunting awful that little section.
One should not piss off an 'old' lady who has nothing better to do than think of creative ways to subtly get back.
And yes, I do carry a pistol.
And no, I never intend to hurt anyone. This person invites friends to hunt and they set up their stands to shoot on other's land. The whole group is disliked intensely by our ridge community as they 'think' they can do what they want. This land is really quite remote so I bet they think I wouldn't notice their stand OR their arrows on my land.
Today? I'm going hunting some ice caves on KVR.