Driving through curtains of snow, we find a pocket of good weather at the northern tip of Douglas Island. We also find solitude. Most of the other trail users are pinned down at home by moisture.

The trail starts off on moist ground where only hardwoods and blue berry bushes thrive. We usually pass quickly this marginal ground and plunge on through the old growth forest to the beach. Today I stop to watch early morning sun backlight Spanish moss and bare blue berry brush, now swollen and red by spring’s upwelling of nutrients. Little sacks of rain clinging to the undersides of moss and branches sparkle with light.

No skunk cabbage shoots break the ground’s surface here. Since these rich yellow green shoots confirm the presence of true spring we hurry down the trial to a bog usually full of them. This pleases Aki, who enjoys movement through the mossy woods above all things.  I enjoy the way her ears flop out a rhythm when she runs.

Snow and ice still cover most of the bog’s surface. The rest is mud except from two skunk cabbage shoots with blacked tips. They misjudged the change of seasons and unfurled their leaves during the last false spring. All summer their misshapen leaves will mark them as fools or brave pioneers. Always a thin line there.