A good snow ~ January 19, 1995

David Heiller

It was a good snow, the five inches of snow that fell on January 10. It fell when the temperature was about 30 degrees, so it was wet and stuck to everything.

Usually this kind of snow falls in March, and it stays for a few hours. Then the sun shines and the wind blows and the snow drops in big globs, and by noon it’s back to normal.

But after last week’s snow, the temperature dropped, and wind stayed away, and the snow stuck like frosting onto every twig and branch for four days. It looked like God had reached down with a big can of whipped cream, and got a little carried away. This snow belonged on a Christmas card by Currier and Ives.

The snow brought snowmobilers to life. You could tell they had been waiting for it for two months. They zipped by on the trails and along the roads. They filled the parking lot of the Embassy Bar and the cash registers of Sturgeon Lake One Stop.

The snow also brought my son and me out to the woods for a 2-1/2 hour hike on Saturday morning. We strapped on snowshoes, and plodded over trails for half a mile.

We saw some interesting things. Noah spotted deer a quarter mile off. Some canine tracks crossed our trail. They looked like a dog, only much bigger. I figured they were from a lone timber wolf.

At one point the tracks came together into short leaps, and intersected with rabbit tracks. The rabbit must have taken refuge in the hollow of a tree; which was littered with its droppings. There was no sign of fur or blood, so the rabbit must have won.

Our snowy road. Another nice 
snowy walk from the house.

You can piece together lots of animal encounters from tracks in snow. We startled up a ruffed grouse on our way home. Actually, it startled us. I crouched and squirmed through the underbrush to see where the grouse had been. I saw its tracks, and followed them for 15 feet. Then it dawned on me that the grouse hadn’t been in this spot at all. Whatever was making these new tracks must still be nearby. I looked up just in time to see another grouse thunder off.

We didn’t need to see a lot of wildlife though. Mostly we marveled at the beauty of the woods, and the snow that clung to everything.

ON SATURDAY NIGHT the waxing moon was two days from full. There was a thin layer of clouds over it, but the snow on the big spruce trees still looked too pretty for words. It reminded me of those glass globes that you shake and snow falls and settles perfectly on the trees and animals inside.

Noah and Malika,
 Miss Emma and David

It was so pretty that I called the kids down from their bedrooms, and asked if they wanted to take a walk. A walk at 9:30 p.m. is a rare occurrence in our house. They said yes.

We went down the road to the culvert. Noah decided it was too spooky and headed home, thinking we would follow. But Mollie held my hand, and we kept walking, and soon Noah rejoined us. Going home alone was spookier than walking with us.

It’s a great sensation, talking and walking on a warm winter night, with a bright sky and snow all around.

As we neared our home, we stopped to admire our old apple tree. Some of its limbs have been sawed off. Others are dead. But every spring it blooms, feeding the honey bees with nectar and feeding our family with a fragrant smell and sight. Every fall it bears many apples.

And on Saturday night, it showed us another beautiful side. Its gnarled branches and fine twigs were black and nearly invisible, but each held a coat of snow. It looked like a work of art done in charcoal and chalk. Only much better The kind you get with a good snow.