Just a short walk ... or not.

Today dawned c-cold, but clear and bright.  The dogs and I hadn't had a decent walk in days, so I bundled up and took them for a short walk in "my" woods.

At first I followed my own marked trail, but when I reached its end, I wandered on, skirting dead-falls and jumping over semi frozen puddles.  My rather vague plan was to see how far I could get into the woods in the hopes of locating any cross-trails.

Our explorations were not along human-made trails.  At best they were critter-trails and at worst, they were not trails but semi-frozen water courses.

Suddenly I came across someone's long-abandoned campsite: complete with tent, sleeping bag and a generous supply of empty beer cans !

I knew the campers could not have carried their gear through the tangled bush along the route that I had just taken, and that meant that they must have come from the other direction.  Woot !  And there it was: their marked trail.

So we followed it, and it lead to another, more established ATV trail.

Though I hadn't brought a compass, I knew that the low sun indicated the direction of home, so I didn't feel lost, even though I didn't know exactly where I was.

After walking for a while, a vague disused trail veered off to our right, and we took it.

(Yes Trey, I DO know where I'm going ... sorta.)

As we followed it, that trail became more clear.  Some trees had been cleared out of the way and boot prints in the snow told me that I wasn't the only one who hiked in this area.

And apparently at one point someone had set up a sweet little camp set up in these woods.

That trail opened up and I followed it until it lead back and actually crossed one of my other marked trails.

At that point Wendy took over as if to say: "Don't worry, I can take it from here.".