If we hadn’t lingered over breakfast, if the onshore flow had held off a few more hours, if the globe isn’t warming, we could enjoy the return of winter longer. But it is already raining on this mountain meadow. But, Aki finds enough snow to slide in as she chases after her Frisbee. Rain has yet to wash away the tracks of a coyote that crossed ours more than a half-dozen times. We can still make out sign of a squirrel’s quick dash from tree cover and tracks of snowshoe hares. One of the hares crossed the trail just before we arrived so we know it survived the coyote.