In hope of finding snowfall rather than the heavy rain plaguing Chicken Ridge this morning, I hauled Aki out to the glacial moraine. Rain followed us there. In a minute Aki lost her initial exurburance for the adventure, stopping me 50 meters from the car with a questioning look. Raising one front paw out from the rain sluiced trail ice, she stopped to offer an excuse for returning to the house. Believing that beauty and the happiness it brings can be found even in hypothermic weather, I pressed on.   Loyal friend that she is, the little dog followed with tail down until we met a happy Labrador retriever who had not lost his exurburance. After that, pride and interesting scents kept up her spirits. 

While the rain lessened the effectiveness of my gloves, I read a government sign that asked us not to attack the beaver dams currently flooding out access to half the moraine.  A group of trained volunteers were controlling the flooding by notching the dams. This reduced the flooding while keeping the water levels high enough to protect the silver salmon spawn. According the sign, and I have no reason to doubt its words, the beavers’s work helps the salmon which feed trout, eagles, and bears.  Have I misjudged the industrious rodents. Maybe yes, maybe no. The problem is that the little guys dam salmon streams and watercourses that have never seen a silver salmon. Water backing up from one of the later efforts is currently flooding out my favorite access trail to moraine.