Walking in the Woods

It was a wonderful day for a hike last Thursday.  A wonderful day if you enjoy hiking in the low 30’s, with a perfectly overcast sky, and a chilling breeze blowing in your face.  I liked it!  I felt cooped up all last week, and it seemed the school work would never end, so getting out for a few hours was a nice escape.

My dad has been telling me about these beaver dams in a pond not far from the family property, and last week was a fine time to go out and survey the neighbors’ dwellings.  Like I mentioned, it was a little on the cool side, and there was a bit of a walk to get to where the water was, but it was really a great hike and being outdoors felt good.  I wasn’t cold and even several times I found myself getting kind of warm in my multiple layers of clothing.

When we got to the waterside, I kind of expected to see some ice, but I didn’t expect for so much of the pond to be frozen.  It was solid enough to really get out onto it.  We probably could have even walked our way pretty close to the beaver dam, but didn’t bother to see if it was really possible.  Taking pictures standing over shallow water seemed the safer option for me.

I don’t know the distance that we walked total, however, it was about an hour and a half to a two hour trek, with plenty of time to stop and enjoy the surroundings.  Standing on the water, my boy was sure he saw a turtle, but once the camera came out, this turtle was nowhere to be seen.  He was swimming under the ice, and it was hard to get a good look, plus at one point there was this loud crack that kind of got me distracted from my turtle hunting.  I didn’t want to find out how deep the water really was, or how cold.

It’s not everyday that you find yourself walking on frozen ponds here in West Tennessee, and it isn’t everyday you get to see a real live beaver dam.  Well, I guess you could see a real live beaver dam everyday if you walked the trails more often than I do. 😉