Stories Written in Snow

There’s something magical about breaking trail on snowshoes after a fresh snowfall, feeling like you’re the first to experience the beauty of these woods cloaked in the quieting snow. And then you start noticing the various tracks criss-crossing your path…marks in the snow that reveal you were not the first here. Each track is a story that unfolded just hours, or even a few minutes, before you arrived. A buck looking for love, a coyote searching for a meal, a rabbit avoiding becoming a meal. You realize the silent landscape you’ve entered is not empty, you’re just late to the party. The forest has its own morning routines, its own highways and shortcuts. Every track hints at something unseen but alive all around you. You feel as though the animals are watching you pass by their prints as you plod along on your snowshoes. Winter snow allows you a glimpse of who came before you, and how many lives unfold in the same space without ever overlapping. You’re walking through a woods of stories written in the snow, and each step reminds you how alive a winter woods truly is.

Written by Therese Oldenburg. My snowshoe hike was at Nature At The Confluence where I am a board member.  Their trails take you through restored prairie and woodlands along Turtle Creek, Rock River and Kelly Creek. 

The pock-marked snowscape

The railroad sleeps tonight.

A flock of robins were fluttering in the trees down to Kelly Creek. This creek is spring-fed, so it never freezes completely.

I stopped on a bench to rest at Eagle Point and enjoyed listening to the sound of water rushing over downed trees. Notice the eagle nest in the distant tree on Boney Island?