Thanksgiving Snow in Rangeley

November 25, 2013

With Thanksgiving around the corner Mother Nature is beginning to settle into winter mode. There has been plenty of snow this month to cover the ground but not quite enough to ski on. The pond has iced-over but might break under the weight of a skater. The temperatures dip well below freezing and then sometimes sporadically climb back up to 45°. Everyone and everything snaps and cracks with the new cold. I have had to adjust to putting on gloves before heading out because it is too frigid to dash to the car without them. Soon winter will settle into herself and we will settle into winter. Soon my fingers will get acclimated to the chill and the pond will freeze solid.

In the meantime as I wait for the pond ice to be thick enough for skating, and the snow to be deep enough for skiing, I tie flies by the fire and watch big fat snowflakes fall to the ground. I watch the chickadees flit to and from the snow-covered bird feeder and I walk through a newly quiet woods covered in white. I peer at the tracks of the animals who walk next to camp while I am not looking— their prints in the snow giving them away in the winter. I marvel that winter has come again and I am thankful for the heat of the wood stove when I come in from tracking and catching snowflakes.

I found Fisher tracks almost as big as dog prints! She had snuck from the bird feeder over to the camp and along the back wall. Meg and I portaged the canoe back to camp just as the snow started piling up. It was a slippery portage but we made it! We used golf bag carriers as wheels!!

~Leah