John Ruskin
Snow conditions continue to improve, with 2-3 inches over the past two days. This is turning out to be the best winter for my variety of back-40, bushwhacking skiing in years. When I set out this afternoon, my goal was to ski over to the Willow River on the north side of county road GG. I made tracks across the pond on the snowmobile trail and started blazing my own trail, once I reached the north end of the pond. It was good to see some other fresh ski tracks that didn't belong to me. They belong to the neighbor lady and one of her daughters who we saw out skiing this morning with the dog. It was sunny then but not this afternoon.
Leaving the snowmobile trail where it crosses Paperjack Creek, I headed east up the frozen creek where it splits through the woods. This is the area where I've seen a pileated woodpecker over the years. No pileated woodpeckers this time, but I did flush out four pheasants from the edge of the woods. They must have been hunkered down under a fallen tree, because they didn't fly out all at once and had to fly up through the trees.
When I reached the east side of the tree line where the marsh is, I headed north along the tree line following a deer path. I flushed out another group of pheasants and a bit further I flushed out a couple more. This time, I saw a couple pheasants running ahead through the woods. I don't recalled scaring up so many pheasants in the past years, but this Fall I saw an abundance of pheasants while out riding my bike. Many trees blew down in the big wind last August. Most were snapped off half way up the tree. From the north side of New Richmond for 20 or miles to the southeast of New Richmond, hundreds of trees were blew down. Many barns were destroyed or damaged and one house was basically blown apart.
County road GG can be crossed two ways. One way is through the round culvert that allows the marsh to drain into the Willow river and the other way is to just cross the road. It's years since I cross the road using the culvert. The last time I crossed through it - it is a crouched, challenging position that a 5' 10", 220 pound guy has to get into to fit through the concrete tube. When I thought about it, I realised that, if I got stuck in there, they probably wouldn't find me until I was a skeleton. Sometimes you have to create you own danger. As a nod to wisdom and old age, I walked across the road.
After crossing GG, I followed a farm rode that runs between the trees and a cornfield. Up ahead, I spotted a flock of turkeys working their way up the road. By the time I saw them, they were alert to my presence and they were starting to head into the trees. I took a side trail into the trees and worked my way around to where the turkeys were starting come out on the path. They turkeys spotted me and headed back the other way.
It had been at least five winters since I'd been over to this area and was surprised by the trail network cut through the trees. Then I remembered that a logging project had been going on the last time I was over here. Working my way through the paths I saw deer stands in the trees and found a bottle of buck scent hanging from a tree. It was obvious that this was a deer hunting zone. As I skied along a path along the Willow, I scared up a couple of deer. I couple see trees that had been rubbed by deer and I was on the lookout for antlers that had been dropped.
I found a suitable tree stump to have my carton of OJ and bar and contemplate the quite of the woods. After a good rest, it was starting to get dark so I headed back home. A couple of downy woodpecker where tapping on nearby trees. Once you quit thrashing through the woods and take time to listen to the quietness of the woods, there is much activity about the place.
I took the express route across the cornfield and was surprised to find myself working my way through some two foot drifts. After getting back to the snowmobile trail, I took that and cut across the housing development and got to ski down the big hill before climbing the hill home.
I always find it quite exhilarating to ski the big hill on cross country skis. You just push off, flex your knees and go down in a straight shush. Just like the old days skiing down Coon's Hill in Hudson. Starting out, we learned about guts before we learned how to turn.
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I remember the day of the wind storm in August very well. Two friends and I were on tubes floating on the Apple River from the Outpost to my dock. We were halfway through our trip - it is about a three hour float - when the storm hit. Two worst places to be in a storm, in the water and under trees - those were our choices. We held on to a downed tree in the river at the beginning of the storm. When the lightning picked up, two of us hunkered down on shore. I have never been so scared in my life. After the storm, we headed back on to the river. We were floating past a neighbor's house, and he was outside assessing tree damage. He could not believe his eyes when he saw us float by. We still laugh (shakily) about it today.
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