The beaver bog is an empty, cold looking place this winter. There is probably three feet or more of snow pack and this is the most we have had in many years. We have not been out here in more than a month-and-a-half given the consistently cold temperatures and biting winds.We have discovered that the usual clothing we have had for a Maine winter was inadequate this year. Doubling up on mittens, socks, and hats was required for many days at a time.

The bear is now fifteen years old and moving much more slowly. There is no way he could negotiate the deep snow; heck, it was even tough for me on snowshoes. But even using the snow-machine trails is an issue because if there is traffic, we have to jump off into the deep snow or get run over. I would be afraid I couldn’t get him back onto the packed trail once we jumped off! So this has also reduced the number of trips in the backwoods. He still is ready and eager to go, as you can see.

Last week we had 40F temperatures and this has greatly reduced the snowpack.

One evening after the time change, we had a fantastic sunset which I missed the 90% that was memorable due to a slow driver ahead of me and I didn’t have my good cameras. This iPhone shot has to suffice.