It is hard to know whether to look up or down. Our first cold snap has crisped up the trail, freezing up the muddy bits and decorating sand bars with frost feathers. Most of the moraine lakes are completely covered by a thin sheet of opaque ice that just manages to catch the mountains’ reflections. So while Aki sniffs and pees I look down at the frost and up at the white covered mountains looking spiffy in the late afternoon sun.

There still be some open water because we hear a shotgun fired nearby. Somebody is taking one last shot at the ducks before they move out to salt water. I think I heard the hunter’s comic sounding duck call when we circled one of the lakes. Without the hunter, we would have silence. Even the squirrels are mum. Maybe that is what I like the best about winter weather. We usually have silence, especially during heavy snow to go with the beauty.