Fresh snow. A clean white undisturbed page, waiting to be written on. Sometimes the first tracks are mine, but often, as I push further on, I find that others have been out and about. This morning, after two days of avoiding the unshoveled depths, I stepped out on paths buried in several inches of fluff. The only clue of the path’s existence is the lack of grasses sticking up along its length. Tall grasses and the remains of goldenrod spread across the rest of the field.
The first tracks I come upon are those of a mouse or vole. Dribbling out of a tiny hole, skittering across the light snow that doesn't seem hard enough to support a leaf, and over the drifts. It surprises me how far they travel, yards across the white surface. Do they know how vulnerable they are? Dark moving shapes against the light background, obvious even in the dim light of stars. Do they see it as freedom? No longer needing to weave through endless grass stems, over rocks that seem like mountains. Or are they just young and find the snow irresistible? Most of the mice alive this early winter have never seen snow before. Mice have short lives. A favorite lunch of many creatures. They reproduce several times a year, and most will not see a second year. So how do they know how to survive? Instinct? Mousy myths passed down from elders on long moonlit nights? Regardless, they venture forth.
Not to far on I find the tracks of a predator. The least weasel. I'm sure it found sustenance bounding along. The tracks go all over, impossible to sort out who went where, and when. There is no obvious carnage. Further on more tracks. This time a predator after both the others. A fox cutting through the field, its tracks showing where it found interesting things to smell and track down. I have no doubt that it went to sleep in a cozy den with the sun coming up, belly assuaged.
My own tracks soon turned toward home, the effort of pushing through snow which cannot support my weight, too much. At some point the snow will pack down and form a tougher skin, and snowshoes will give me an advantage. I will be back.
