Another beautiful winter day in Colorado
Everyone hears “Colorado” and asks if I ski. Although I’ve skiied on a number of occasions, and enjoy both downhill and cross country skiing, I’ve found that I much prefer snowshoeing. It’s like hiking, but with a better calorie burn, and it’s free, which is hard to beat. You can go just about anywhere.
We went snowshoeing today, and it was beautiful. Just 20 minutes from our house is a series of trails that we mountain bike in the summer and hike/snowshoe in the winter. The day started out cloudy with a pretty, light snowfall. We broke trail for some of the trip, working our way through nice dry powder – even with the snowshoes, we were almost up to our knees. By the time we were coming out, the sun was out and we got one of those beautiful blue skies that you can only see in the Colorado high country, and which contrasts beautifully against the snow-covered pine, spruce, and fir trees. There was still a glittery snowfall coming down, blowing out of the Indian Peaks. Have I said it was beautiful?
After we got home, and I started a fire, I was looking out over the mountainside and saw a couple of red foxes trotting across our property. Although they were a hundred yards away from her, a doe decided she didn’t want to be around them, and went bouncing away up a smaller hill. She stood stock-still, watching for the foxes for at least 30 minutes. It’s been 45 minutes now, and she still in that spot, although she’s since turned a bit. I’m sure the foxes aren’t interested in something as big as she is but she’s not grazing, and I feel a bit bad for her – the rest of the herd is nowhere to be seen at the moment. Hopefully she’ll rejoin them soon.
The sun is going down, and it’s time for me to go enjoy the fire, and remind myself how happy I am to live here.
