The air temperature has been hovering around freezing for the last two days, the ground hasn’t frozen and the snow is the texture of partially dried cement.
Even with snowshoes, I felt like I was trudging through the woods. Tracks upon hiker tracks from the last two days - I found a few fresh deer tracks, but it’s a gray day and I could not see any evidence of the delicate coyote tracks I’d seen last week.
On the way back, I noticed several downy woodpecker feathers exposed in partially frozen snow. I didn’t see them when I began the hike. Had some animal hunter passed by, or did my snowshoes uncover something buried in the snow when I started out?
No matter how I tilted my head, I could see no wild animal prints. Two domestic dogs, four or five people with shoes who took advantage of the compact snow from the snowshoe and ski travelers - but no wild hunters.