cold is here--snow is coming...

it had been unusually warm the last of feb and the first of march. so warm, that much of the winter's snow disappeared and it felt like an early spring was on tap. in fact, syrup makers that had gotten their taps in early, had already gotten several strong runs and started boiling. friday and saturday things turned back to winter.



by sunday, it was solidly winter again, definitely cold with the wind pushing it well below zero on the charts--perfect time for a couple of hikes. the first was with some trails alliance folks around the webster wildlife management area just west of the high school in canaan. i heard through lenny that alice s. was leading a smallish group starting from the iron bridge over the indian river at the west end of 'the flats'. alice knows a ton about plant species and it would be fun to hear that.


i met alice and two others at the appointed time and we took off into the woods hoping to get out of the rather brutal wind. right after crossing rt 4 we stopped to cut out a couple blowdowns, then point out a few white oak saplings, and carefully inspect a hazelnut shrub. further in, we came up to a tree audibly groaning and visibly cracking, sounding and looking like it was about to fall any moment. it was rather comical that each of us took a different approach in getting past its 'widow making' zone.



past the hazard tree, we worked our way out into the grassy flood plain and stopped at the creek thatcomes out of crystal lake and then mud pond. it was open and running fairly high, keeping us from crossing, so we kept cutting east. as we went, we identified a couple of dogwoods, slippery and red-osier, and two roses, 'really bristly' shining rose and 'paired, down turning prickles' swamp rose.

pushed back into the woods we kept on, headed toward the cranberry bog, directly across the creek from my old environmental science 'forest watch' plots. we gingerly made our way across a 'mostly' frozen surface dotted with red berries. i broke one out of the ice and ate it to see if a whole winter had mellowed its tartness--i thought it had, the others were less convinced. in any case i told alice that i would try to come out and pick next fall.

on the far side of the bog, we crossed back over rt 4 and through a strip of woods to get onto the rail trail. as we hiked along toward our vehicles, we spotted a few more hazelnuts, mostly beaked, but at least one american--or so i was told. it was a good little walkabout, but the increasing cold and bitter wind hurried us toward said vehicles. i offered everyone to extend their time outside by joining the MOC on our monthly moonrise-sunset hike up cardigan, but nobody made any promises.

as i drove off toward cardigan and a second go, i was pretty sure those folks were headed home to warm up and was guessing that no students would be likely to leave a warm house to show for this hike. it was getting colder and the wind would certainly be howling up top. sure enough, nobody appeared even after waiting the normal five minutes. i took off solo and kept moving to stay warm. while i did slow down to take off jacket and gloves, my hat stayed on head or in my hand. above treeline, i raced along, not wanting to stop to put the jacket back on until i was out of the wind on the lee side of the tower up top.




at the top and out of the wind i bundled up. after a drink of 'icy cold' water, a picture of the setting sun behind what i took to be killington, and a windspeed check--a very steady 30-35mph--i started down. i was going to miss the moon topping the horizon, but so was everybody else as the huge cloud bank from the storm coming in early tuesday, would keep it hidden close to another hour. i was not going to wait for that.




all the way down i was stuck on daft punks, "harder, better, faster, stronger...work is never over" only messing with the words to include darker, colder, windy-er. the three syllables of the latter kept tripping me up, but i managed to stay on my feet. back at the truck i had just stowed my pack when it struck me, when i get to the house, pam would be gone headed off to israel. while waiting for the bus down in new london i imagined would be downright cold, she should find it a bit warmer next to the mediterranean in tel aviv or floating in the dead sea.

as the truck heater started to wake up, i remembered that storm coming in. warm can be nice, but i will take winter any day and if we got the foot or more of snow expected, i would feel snug as bug in a rug--whatever that means in this context.