This was a great day for hiking! In the morning, I went to do our usual morning walk but as we went into the woods, Sadie stopped and I realized nobody had gone farther than about a dozen steps into the woods since the last snowfall. So we went around by the street and up the Red Circle trail on a pretty compact but narrow path through the deep snow. When we reached the area where it starts to level off, there was a significant trail crossing at right angles, obviously made by deer. I remarked aloud, "Wow, busy intersection." or something similar. Then I looked to my left and there was a deer standing there on this deer trail about 25 feet away looking right at me. I don't know how Sadie had gotten by without seeing the deer but she was quite a bit ahead. The deer just stood there for a moment and then turned and slowly walked away.
In the afternoon, I got out the snowshoes again and was determined to break through the virgin snow up to the Red Circle trail so we can resume our regular morning routine. Once we reached the Red Circle trail we headed up past the Yellow trail. The trail was no longer solidly packed but had diminished to the footsteps of a single snowshoer. Sadie was hopping from footprint to footprint until we reached the Orange trail. I hadn't decided if I wanted to turn left on Orange or continue on the Red Circle but Sadie was in trouble. Our single snowshoeing predecessor had turned right on Orange so whichever way we went, I'd have to lead because she gets tired of plowing through the deep snow. She had hopped 3 or 4 bounds into the snow continuing on the Red Circle and I turned left onto Orange and called her. She realized she'd have to stay behind me but she doesn't like that.
We hadn't gone very far when she stepped on the back of my snowshoe and I fell forward in the snow. It was a very warm (mid 40s) day and I only had a sweatshirt and no gloves so my bare hands went deep into the snow. I yelled at her and was contemplating turning back when the Swiss Rescue Squad appeared. Down the trail ahead we heard voices and an older couple was snowshoeing towards us. I stepped aside and told Sadie to be still as they approached. They had a definite Swiss-Austrian-German accent. I told them it must be easier to snowshoe without a dog stepping on the backs of your shoes. They laughed and wished me well and continued off. But now our trail ahead at least had holes for Sadie to hop in and lead.
We continued on. In a few spots, I was pretty sure that "Hans und Frau" had strayed from the trail so I plunged through the deep snow until soon meeting up with Sadie and their footprints again. They say "Silence is golden" but up here, silence was white. I was surprised how far it was to the Yellow/Green crossover but when we got there, it hadn't been traveled at all so we continued on Orange. I had looked ahead and saw that Orange wasn't going to do too much up or down.
We got to the Red Triangle and another decision. After seeing that Orange was going to go up and down ahead and the Red Triangle was more traveled, I called home and warned that I would probably again come down onto Mount Carmel Ave via Red Triangle.
As we headed down, I could hear voices below. When we reached the Yellow trail, it was very much more compacted so considering Sadie's efforts in the deeper stuff so far, and mindful that I could get a couple more segments of my Giant Master's log filled in, we turned right onto Yellow and headed for the front of the park.
Sadie disappeared ahead and around a bend I saw that she had made a friend. A couple was hiking with a golden retriever and both tails were wagging. I called Sadie and she came back. The guy yelled a "hello" and they continued on while we followed at a distance with Sadie now on the leash. A little farther down the trail, there were people to our right up the hill, probably on the Nature Trail, with a black labrador. Sadie was getting a little excited but we managed to work our way all the way to the map display at the front of the park.
I called home and Pat said she would pick us up. I called back and told her that we would be on the Quinnipiac side of the street because it looked drier over there so maybe Sadie's paws could dry out walking around there. The end of another great day of hiking on the Giant.
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