Snow Tracks

A winter forest walk is like visiting a stunning, pristine foreign country with shy, yet welcoming inhabitants.

Cedar trees relax their branches and snow thumps to the ground in greeting. Lynx, moose, rabbit, coyotes and deer walk the trails before me; I follow their tracks, humbled by the knowledge that this is their beautiful home and I am a guest.

I went snowshoeing this past weekend with my youngest daughter and a friend.  We snowshoed through a part of the Earth’s one and only, Inland Temperate Rainforest. To snowshoe amongst tall cedar trees is unbelievably peaceful and the winter air smells delicious. The girls were troopers. We snowshoed for just over 2 hours, only stopping to have a hot cocoa break in the forest.

We hiked at a low enough elevation (Telemark Trails above West Kelowna) that wildlife tracks were everywhere! We had so much fun trying to identify all of the prints. At one point, the trail kept climbing up for what seemed like forever and I feared we may have followed the wrong path–but no, we’d just taken an extended extra trail loop.

There is nothing more Zen and peaceful than being in the middle of a winter forest.

The girls and I decided that we’re going to purchase snowshoes and take to the winter forests regularly.

Yes, sadly, the snowshoeing hurt my injured foot but I am at the point where my mind needs to get lost in a BC forest and “foot or no foot,” I am going to do it.

The British Columbian forests have been my home since I was one month old.

There is no place on Earth like them.

The girls decide to the a short rest in their comfy snow beds 🐰

Snow Tracks, Winter Den, Mix Hart

There’s no place like home…