I took a walk in the snowy woods. . .

. . . and had a little adventure.

I decided yesterday to take advantage of being snowed in at the Nature Sanctuary and took a nice hike in the afternoon. The snow was still falling. I, of course, took my camera.

At first I was enchanted with the different ways that snow was collecting on the vegetation. There was snow on thorns.














Snow on branches.




Snow on bark.

 Well you get the idea. There was a lot of snow.

 I love the way the snow outlines the swooping branches of this bush honeysuckle, but I hate that it is bush honeysuckle. Evil, evil plant.

 Up to this point, my walk was uneventful, just a quiet walk through the snowy laden woods, a gentle snowfall with real snowflakes and not just the crumbs we sometimes get.

Then I came across the big, not quite dead sycamore in the path, and things got interesting. As I was walking around the tree looking at it, leaning against it (um..ok, yes I am a tree-hugger), it tripped me with roots hidden under the snow. You can see above where I fell. In 6 inches of snow. Cold, wet snow. My camera in my hand that I reflexively used to stop my fall. Well at least no one was there to see my oh so graceful fall. But wait...what is that I hear, someone else actually walking on the trails? I look back, indeed there is someone all bundled up coming up the hill. Not wanting to break my solitude, I quickly get up and continue my walk. The snow on my camera lens left condensation that lead to some really cool pictures.

 

Since I wanted to remain in my bubble of solitude, I chose the path which had no other footprints.

I eventually came to a fork in the trail and wasn't sure which way to go. I was going to go down the trail marked by this little sign, but though I should see what it said first....

Glad I checked!

 By this point, I was pretty tired, and thinking I may have pulled a muscle in my fall. I continue having a great walk, just a little painful. So when I came to the glade portion of the trail, which leads up to the hill upon which my house sets....you can kinda see it if you look really hard, there behind the electrical pole..

So I decided to take a short cut, through the glade and up the hill into my back yard. Seemed like a wonderful plan, until, upon reaching the end of the glade,  I saw this.

 Hard to tell from this photo, I know, but turns out that between the glade and my house was a ravine, a step, rocky, snow-covered ravine. I saw a deer trail in the snow and thought, well, if a deer can make it up, so can I. Well the deer trail turned off to the side before heading up the hill. My one clear path up the hill was fenced in on one side with sharp, rusty barbed wire fence. No hope of a hand-hold there. There were also rocks hidden under the snow, treacherous traps for the unwary or careless. I had to be on my guard! But, I had been in worse situations. I knew I could handle this.

 So I trudged up the hill until I saw another obstacle.  A tree branch across the path (the steep, slippery, snow-covered path with lurking rocks under the snow, in case you forgot).

  Whatever would I do?

Only one thing to do - go forward as there was no going back at this point. Though difficult I managed to make it under the tree with a smile.



Phew!!!!!

Almost to the top!


Ahhh - home sweet home. I was so happy to see home again, I made a snow angel.




It was so beautiful laying in the snow with the snowflakes gently falling on my face I could have laid there for hours. But, I was laying in the snow, so it was cold and wet and cold. So I didn't

So there you have it. My little adventure on a snowy day. I am not sure which was more difficult, climbing up that hill or writing this blog post about it.