Argy and I travelled to Bar Harbor on Saturday to visit out son Noah who is a junior at the College of the Atlantic. As part of the trip we spent a couple of hours snowshoeing in the National Park. The weather was perfect; cold but not too cold and clear as a bell. There was plenty of snow that was crusted over from the rain at the end of last weeks storm and about a half an inch of new snow that fell early that morning.
Noah has a course in winter ecology this term and is very interested in what there is to see in the snowy landscape. It is also great fun to hear the latest scientific explanation for some of the things that I notice in the winter landscape. Because of the fresh snow and little wind the tracking was excellent with lots of interesting tracks to follow. We saw snowshoe hare tracks, squirrel tracks (both red and gray), a fox and what I think was a mink. A little confusing because the tracks were nearly at the top of the hill far from water that I think of as mink habitat. The tracks were simply too far apart to have been a weasel (actually would be an ermine this time of year) and Mount Desert Island is definitely not martin habitat. So mink by default. Noah also took many photos of the tracks that we saw that morning to use in his final project.
This winter is providing some excellent snowshoeing conditions and as February proceeds the days are getting longer and warmer. This is an excellent time of year to book a nature exploration trip on snowshoes. If you would like to experience the Maine Outdoors in winter give me a call or click here to make a reservation.
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