Reading: Margaret George, Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles and The God of Small Things

Viewing: Snow and mountains, a long-eared black squirrel, and a coyote. Also a golden eagle (or a really big hawk), a few kestrels, and some grey jays.

Moving: Snowshoed 5 miles.

Learning: there are long-eared black squirrels in RMNP, not just in the foothills.

23 January 2000: Snowshoeing

Withies mark the edges of the roads. I haven't yet seen the snow to the tops of them, but I live in hope.

Later in the day, people were sledding down this boulder. It's not a long run, but a nice steep one.

And I don't know why they don't go out to Bear Lake to sled on the other side, since the boulder is so near civilization in the form of this ranger station and the chemical toilets just across the way. The sign under the peak of the room says "Elevation 9,475 ft."

And aha, 9,475 feet is the exact right spot to set an altimeter watch. I created the altitude geek all by myself; I bought RDC the watch for Christmas. He asked for it, though; I didn't think of it myself. He tried to set it at sea level in Florida but there was too much pressure or too little or something: at the high tide mark he set the altitude to 0', but three miles inland the watch would register -30'. I know Florida's flat, but that's too much.

You can tell RDC knows his primary colors.

I'm holding ski poles but smiling? I must be on snowshoes, not skis. It looks like I have Boobookitty dangling from my parka but that's actually my ski gloves. It wasn't that cold so I just wore my glove liners mostly.

I can't believe the name Boobookitty came to me. I hang my head that I remember "Laverne and Shirley" so well.

Better than his primary colors, RDC knows blue. His new hat doesn't match his shell perfectly, but his gaiters match both each other and the shell.

As wind sweeps the lake mostly clear of snow, huge drifts form at the east end. This drift is easily six feet higher than the snowpack and the boughs of the pine shape the snow as it comes through.

Mountains with the beginning of a snowcloud at the right.

Bright sun, mountains, thoroughly iced lake, mountains, snow cloud, and mountains.

Some more mountains in cloud.

This is the third such picture RDC has taken. When we're at Bear Lake and there's enough snow, I serve as a snow gauge.

The night of the eclipse, I saw a lot more elk in my headlights than we did this day in daylight, but I've never seen one on ice before. Its buddies had already scrambled up the far bank yet it couldn't figure out how. At least the ice was lumpy, it being a frozen river, rather than a smoothly slick lake.

Beth said she did the same thing today as she did this day last year. So did we.