The radio guy announced, "Saturday will be a great day for winter sports!" So despite the cold, we decided to go on a long snowshoe trek with our friends Sue and Dave.

Below you see can the stream bed, with Tom and Dave far ahead of Sue and me. We were slow because we kept looking at animal tracks. I know very little about tracking but Sue knows quite a bit, and I love to be instructed in such things.

Here is one of many crevasses on the stream. Despite the subzero temperatures, the water continues to bubble and run. 

The sky was a miraculous blue. But the birds were silent.

The stream opens into this bog. The small scrubby trees are alders, and on a few of them the buds are beginning to swell. Think of this as a photograph of spring.

According to Sue, these are mink tracks. After she showed me the tracks, she told a story from her childhood: one day the kids came to the school and found an ermine inside.

See this print that looks like a lobster's snow angel? This is the track of the snowshoe hare.

Here's another crevasse, this time on the bog. Because the water is quieter than the stream's, it has formed these ice flowers.